ATLANTA -- The Guardians have to toe a fine line.

This organization has built its identity around being scrappy. This year more than any other, the emphasis has been on causing havoc on the bases. We’ve seen it pay off as recently as Saturday, when José Ramírez beat out a double play ball at first and then stole second -- both of which allowed runs to score. But the Guardians learned on Sunday that this mentality can also cause some problems.

Cleveland was thrown out four times on seven steal attempts, including twice in the 10th inning that halted any chance of jumping ahead of Atlanta and led to a 4-3, 10-inning loss to the Braves at Truist Park. This marked just the second time the Guardians have dropped a series this season. The other came to the Yankees two weeks ago.

“It’s what we’re going to do,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said of the aggressiveness on the basepaths. “It’s unfortunate in the timing of it, but we’re going to make some mistakes, but at the same time, our aggression is what leads us to scoring runs.”

Vogt’s message has been clear since Spring Training: Everyone has the green light to try to steal until they don’t -- and it’s rare that they don’t.

Vogt has gone above and beyond to express his trust and confidence in his guys, which means it’s usually up to the player to determine whether he’ll attempt to swipe a bag. This mentality comes with its ups and downs, but even through the downs, Vogt’s sticking to the plan.

“We’re never going to say no more,” Vogt said. “When you do have these instances where we make a mistake on the bases, you want to talk about it, you want to learn from it and understand hey, this is the situation, this is what we’re thinking here and just learn from it.

"They’re never going to dial back the aggression. These guys are great baseball players with high IQs. Sometimes, you just try and do a little too much.”

Let’s take a closer look at the two instances in the 10th.

After getting picked off and caught stealing in the seventh inning, Guardians left fielder Steven Kwan ran into trouble again three frames later. He was out on second base as the automatic runner in extra innings and when Andrés Giménez recorded an out without moving Kwan to third, the pressure heightened for Kwan to try to move up an extra 90 feet to put the possibility of scoring on a sacrifice fly on the table.

He had some discussions about this before the inning. The team thought Braves lefty A.J. Minter would be someone they could swipe a bag off of if the time was right. So, with Ramírez at the plate, Kwan broke for third, but Minter was already spinning around toward second and was easily able to nab him.

“Just trying to do too much,” Kwan said. “Situation was a little different than probably how we would have drawn it up, but just tried to do too much.”

Ramírez got on base on a bloop single to shallow right field. With Josh Naylor in the box, Ramírez tried to steal second to get himself into scoring position, but was thrown out standing up, as if shortstop Orlando Arcia tricked him into thinking no throw was coming from the catcher.

“That’s what it looked like,” Vogt said. “It just looked like Arcia did something to make him think there was no throw coming.”

That failed steal attempt ended the inning and the Guardians were only able to have two batters finish their plate appearances. If those moments go in their favor, the outcome may have been different, but they each were big risks to take, especially with the heart of the order due up.

“I think that’s kind of the fine line that we’re toeing,” Kwan said. “If it’s available, I think we have to be aggressive and take advantage of it but you can’t force the issue. Yeah, just trying to do too much is never going to be a good thing in baseball in general.”

These are the hiccups that Vogt is hoping his team will learn from. But they certainly aren’t moments that are going to alter the way this club approaches each game.

“I don’t ever want these guys to slow down,” Vogt said. “Let’s learn from the mistakes and just keep getting better.”