Chad Jennings

cjennings@lohud.com

Several teams have played more games than the Yankees, but not one of them has stolen more bases.

I have to imagine it's one of the least expected team stats of this early season, and it hasn’t happened strictly because of Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner. In fact, those two account for fewer than half of the team’s 13 stolen bases this season.

Jacoby Ellsbury 4

4 Chase Headley 3

3 Brett Gardner 2

2 Starlin Castro 2

2 Didi Gregorius 1

1 Alex Rodriguez 1

“I wouldn’t say necessarily any kind of philosophy change,” Gardner said. “You just try to take advantage of opportunities that get presented to us. Starlin is capable of running a little bit, (and) he wasn’t here last year, so that adds another element to our game. Guy at the bottom of the order like Chase Headley, he didn’t play (yesterday), but very very smart base runner and knows when to take advantage of the situation. And obviously me and Jacoby up at the top, that’s our job to get on base and get over in scoring position as much as possible.

“We’ll continue to do that, continue to be aggressive, and try to get in scoring position for those big guys in the middle of the lineup.”

Last season, the Yankees ranked 25 th in stolen bases throughout baseball. Only two American League teams had fewer steals.

“I wouldn’t say consciously (running more this season),” Ellsbury said. “But trying to take advantage of situations and just going. … Any time we can get extra bases (it’s a good thing). Basically turn a single into a double, turn a double into a triple. It’s how you win games, getting into scoring position and putting as much pressure on the defense as possible.”