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Jacoby Ellsbury entered play against the Phillies on Thursday with 16 steals in 18 attempts. After a "down" season for steals in 2011, thanks to 83 extra-base hits that limited his opportunities, he's seemingly back on track as the stolen base threat he was back in his earlier Sox days, when he twice led the American League in base thefts. This looks even more true after Ellsbury set the single-game Red Sox record for steals with five on Thursday.
Here's the record-setting steal, which occurred after pitcher Michael Stutes threw over to first base repeatedly without even throwing a pitch to Daniel Nava. The first time Stutes did, Ellsbury went for second anyway:
Ellsbury broke his own record of four, one he shared with former Red Sox second baseman and current NESN broadcaster Jerry Remy:
| Rk | Player | Date | Tm | Opp | PA | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | IBB | HBP | SB | CS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jacoby Ellsbury | 2013-05-30 | BOS | PHI | 6 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| 2 | Jacoby Ellsbury | 2010-08-09 | BOS | NYY | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| 3 | Jerry Remy | 1980-06-14 | BOS | CAL | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 4 | Jacoby Ellsbury | 2012-08-09 | BOS | CLE | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 5 | Jacoby Ellsbury | 2009-05-02 | BOS | TBR | 6 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 6 | Jacoby Ellsbury | 2008-05-31 | BOS | BAL | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 7 | Jacoby Ellsbury | 2008-05-30 | BOS | BAL | 7 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 8 | Reggie Smith | 1967-08-29 (2) | BOS | NYY | 9 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 9 | Ben Chapman | 1937-07-09 | BOS | PHA | 7 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 10 | Billy Werber | 1934-05-21 | BOS | CHW | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 11 | Roy Johnson | 1934-05-21 | BOS | CHW | 6 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 12 | Buddy Myer | 1928-07-24 | BOS | NYY | 5 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 13 | Homer Ezzell | 1925-07-17 | BOS | SLB | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 14 | Harry Hooper | 1920-04-19 (1) | BOS | NYY | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 15 | Harry Hooper | 1919-06-07 | BOS | DET | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| 16 | Harry Hooper | 1916-09-17 | BOS | CHW | 5 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
The last steal was also number 210 in Ellsbury's career, third-most ever among Red Sox players. Ellsbury trails Tris Speaker (267) and Harry Hooper (300) -- hey, no one said the Sox had a long and glorious history of base thievery. Dustin Pedroia is the only active threat to Ellsbury's ranking at the moment, as he has 110, but even that's pushing it considering he's already 29 years old and might not steal 20 bases a year forever.
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