Tarik Skubal didn’t waste any time taking advantage of the automatic balls and strikes (ABS) challenge system on Tuesday.
The Detroit Tigers’ ace and American League starter successfully used a challenge and got San Diego Padres star Manny Machado out in the opening inning of the All-Star Game at Truist Park in what was the first use of the ABS challenge system in the Midsummer Classic.
The ABS challenge system, which has been tested at the Triple-A level for a couple of seasons, was used in about 60% of spring training games this season. According to data the league released in March, a little more than half of challenges were overturned. Each challenge added an average of 13.8 seconds to a game, and about four challenges were used per contest.
MLB’s competition committee is going to meet later this summer to determine whether the ABS challenge system will be used in the majors full-time next season. But while that’s still being explored, the league opted to put it in place for Tuesday’s All-Star Game for the first time.
Under the system, a pitcher, catcher or hitter can challenge an umpire’s call of a ball or strike immediately after the pitch in question. Each team was given two challenges during the All-Star Game, and challenges are retained if they are successful.
Once Skubal called for the challenge, the stadium video board and the Fox broadcast showed the Hawk-Eye view that monitored the exact location of the previous pitch. That showed that the ball was in fact in the strike zone, which resulted in Machado receiving his third strike and gave the AL their second out of the inning.
The challenge was used again in the fifth inning, too. Athletics star Jacob Wilson called it when he was at the plate, and successfully got a strike call overturned. He ended up grounding out after that, so it didn’t matter much.
While time will tell if the ABS challenge system enters the league permanently, it worked perfectly on Tuesday.
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