Coach Brent Strom and GM Mike Fitzgerald of the Diamondbacks take exception to the Mets broadcasters criticizing a late-game, defensive strategy. The Diamondbacks did not hold Tim Locastro in the ninth, and he stole a base:

Fitzgerald also pushed back on what he thought were questionable numbers put forth on the broadcast on Tuesday night. Cohen argued that the Diamondbacks improved the Mets’ chances of winning by “200 percent” because Nimmo gets a hit 26 percent of the time compared to getting an extra-base hit at only a nine-percent clip.

Fitzgerald said historical data suggests the Diamondbacks’ win probability only went down from 81 percent to 79 percent by allowing Locastro to take second, which he thought was worth the tradeoff of being able to better defend against Nimmo, who eventually flew out to center to end the game.

Strom said he felt the same way, saying the Diamondbacks were better off going into their “prevent defense.”

AZCentral.com

I like that the Diamondbacks showed they knew the probabilities before they made the decision. A big part of that was that they thought there was no chance of throwing out Locastro given the pitcher and catcher at the moment. There have been pitchers who never cared about the stolen base, as they knew if they got the batter, the SB would not matter. This was the managerial equivalent.