JUPITER, Fla. — The theme of St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa’s mini-meeting with his gathered flock in the clubhouse this morning was this: How the club focuses on the big things, but little things help win. He used as examples of his “big things” the standard tenets of baseball — quality hitting, quality pitching, quality baserunning. The tools, if you will. For his “little things”, he pointed to one moment in yesterday’s victory against the Dominican Republic.

He said it was Colby Rasmus’ lead from first base on the second pitch of an at-bat. That changed the game.

“The little things (help) lead to all of the big things,” La Russa said. “Colby’s little stinking lead was critical to us winning the game.”

La Russa then led us down the rabbit hole of detail-oriented baseball and how a 4-1 victory against Team Dominicana may have hinged on a prospect’s stride from first base in the fifth inning. These kind of conversations and explanations happen all too rarely, and too often they only find room for re-telling in books written as autopsies on great or important or thinking-man’s games. Yet, this morning La Russa told his team about the importance of the lead and then illuminated the media about it as well. For those readers really into the nuances of baseball, I’ll attempt to retell it here.

“The more I thought about the game …” he started.

In the fifth inning, the Cardinals and the Dominican Republic were tied, 1-1. Rasmus, batting ninth, reached base with a walk. On the first pitch to leadoff hitter Skip Schumaker, Rasmus takes a lead, and La Russa reads the Dominican as watching Rasmus to steal. They are eyeballing him to see if he flinches, if he lurches, if he does anything to give away his intentions. He does not. The pitch is made, taken, and Rasmus eases back to first base.

With Schumaker up — a lefthanded hitter — and speed on base in Rasmus, the levers La Russa likes to pull all lined up, so he signalled: Hit & Run.

This is the lead that La Russa lauded this morning. Having received the sign, Rasmus takes his lead from first. The Dominican team has fixated on him, watching him for any hint that he’s going on this pitch. If he settles in a half stride further away from the bag. If his hands are fidgeting, if he’s bouncing on his feet — anything that any number of young players do once they get a sign to do something. They are reading Rasmus to see if there is a play called and what that play might mean.

According to La Russa, Rasmus did exactly what he did on the pitch before. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Team Dominicana doesn’t do a pitch out, doesn’t do anything to shoo Rasmus back to the bag and, La Russa assumes the next day, believed that Rasmus was just doing on that pitch what he had done on the previous pitch. He didn’t “do anything different,” La Russa said. Rasmus sold status quo with his lead. And then, with the pitch, he was off …

Schumaker scalded a grounder through the hole opened on the right side of the infield. Rasmus sped around second and reached third, and then scored the go-ahead run on a groundout. The Cardinals scored two runs in the inning, pulling away for good.

“He took the exact same lead, Skip finds a hole for (his base hit),” La Russa said. “Runners on first and third leads to us being two runs up, with wind blowing in and good pitching.”

Little lead. Big things.

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