Okay, so I wanted to try out some stuff in MLB The Show, specifically about baserunning. I’ve heard people talking about “cheese” plays, and I wanted to see if I could figure some out myself.
First, I jumped into a “Play Now” game. I didn’t want to mess with my franchise or Diamond Dynasty teams while experimenting. I just picked two random teams – it didn’t really matter who.
My Experiment Setup
I made sure to be the visiting team, so I’d be batting first. This way, I could try things right away without having to play defense.
- Get a runner on. Pretty obvious, but yeah, I needed someone on base to try anything. A single worked just fine.
- Try stealing. I just hit the steal button (L2 on PlayStation) to see what would happen. I figured that’s the basic move everyone knows. My runner got thrown out. Ouch!
I wanted to check was something I’d seen online – using the right stick to point to the next base.
- I got another runner on first.
- This time, before the pitcher even started, I flicked the right stick towards second base.
- Then, as the pitcher moved, I hit L2 to steal.
The runner took off a little earlier and barely slide in there!. Okay, that seemed to work, giving me a tiny head start.
Taking It Further
I wondered if I could get even more aggressive. Could I “cheese” it more? Time for my next try:
- Runner on first.
- Flicked the right stick to second, like before.
- But this time, I also held down L1, which is supposed to make the runner take a bigger lead.
- As the pitcher moved, I hit L2 again.
The runner got a huge jump! I mean, it was almost unfair. He made it to second easily. But it felt risky – a good pitcher might have picked me off.
Trying for Home
Since that worked so well, I got greedy. I wanted to see if I could steal home using the same idea.
- I get runners on first and third this time around.
- I selected the runner at third base by pointing the left stick at home plate and hitting L1 to steal.
It worked! It was super risky, and the catcher almost tagged him, but the runner slid in just under the tag. Definitely a “cheese” play, but a fun one!
So, that’s what I figured out. You can definitely get some extra advantages on the basepaths if you’re quick with the controls. I’m sure there’s more to learn, but this was a good start!
