to steal on even an average-armed catcher. The most important rule to remember while pitching with base-runners on is to stay relaxed. Being tense makes a pitcher much more prone to committing a balk. A baserunner with a reputation for stealing bases, can also take advantage of the pitcher's desire to hold them to their base, as a means to throw off the pitcher's concentration. By taking a large lead, the runner can hope to force the pitcher to make mistakes, therefore helping the batter, by improving their chances at the plate. Prolific base stealers can accomplish this without a true intention to steal any base at all. Pitchers should be aware of this, and take care not to attempt to pick-off a runner, to the point of fatigue or losing focus on the batter. Notable examples On July 11, 1964, Hal Stowe of the Charlotte Hornets was brought in to pitch in a tied game, with two outs and one runner on base. His first move was a successful pickoff throw, ending the inning. The Hornets scored the go-ahead run in their half of the inning, thus giving Stowe credit as the winning pitcher, despite not throwing a single pitch. On August 24, 1983, Tippy Martinez of the Baltimore Orioles picked off three consecutive Toronto Blue Jays base runners in the first half of the 10th inning. The catcher for the Orioles, utility infielder Lenn Sakata, had replaced the backup catcher at the start of the inning. Sakata hadn't played as a catcher since Little League, and the Blue Jays thought it would be easy to steal off him. In the bottom half of the same inning, Sakata hit a walk-off home run. On September 30, 1992, George Brett of the Kansas City Royals was picked off after getting his 3,000th hit. Game 4 of the 2013 World Series ended with a pickoff, as Koji Uehara of the Boston Red Sox threw to first base, causing St. Louis Cardinals' runner Kolten Wong to be tagged out. Records Pickoff records are imprecise, as it is not an official MLB statistic, and historical box scores typically did not distinguish between a pickoff and a caught stealing. Baseball-Reference Records per Baseball-Reference.com Career: 146 by Steve Carlton Single season: 23 by Jerry Garvin of the 1977 Toronto Blue Jays Single game: 4, shared by Garvin of the 1977 Toronto Blue Jays (May 25,