Successful ABS Challenge Earns D-backs Spring Breakout Win
Image credit: (Photo by Bill Mitchell)
Major League Baseball has not yet tried to bring the automated ball-strike system to the major leagues, but Saturday’s D-backs/Rockies’ Spring Breakout game gave a potential glimpse at the future.
It can be pretty easily argued that the D-backs won because of a successful ABS challenge.
The D-backs beat the Rockies 3-1 in a seven-inning game. If not for an ABS Challenge, it would likely have been tied 1-1.
With one out in the fourth inning, Jordan Lawlar was run up on an Angel Chivili slider for strike three, but he challenged the call and the automated system showed the pitch was just off the plate. He then worked the count back into his favor and eventually doubled. Caleb Roberts followed with a walk. They both advanced a base on a throwing error on a pickoff.
When Ivan Melendez struck out, it would have ended the inning without Lawlar’s successful challenge. Instead A.J. Vukovich got to bat, and he singled in Lawlar and Roberts.
In a game where the Rockies only scored one run, that two-run swing was the difference.
The Rockies tried to counter with a challenge of their own, as they challenged the ball four call on Jakey Josepha in the sixth inning. The call was upheld, Josepha then stole second and eventually scored.
If you want to see an example of the ABS challenge system in action, here’s a Jackson Holliday challenge from a Triple-A game last year.
The challenge system is expected to return to Triple-A again this year. There likely won’t be many examples as significant as what happened in this Saturday Spring Breakout game, but this was an example of how one reversed call can change a game.
