After opener, Seattle Mariners still adjusting to ABS system

SEATTLE – With the Seattle Mariners trailing 5-4 in the eighth inning of Thursday night’s season opener, Cal Raleigh watched a 2-2 slider go by from Cleveland Guardians reliever Erik Sabrowski.

The pitch was a bit outside, but home plate umpire Lance Barksdale rung up Raleigh with a called third strike.

Mariners fall to Guardians 6-4 on opening day

For essentially the entire history of baseball, that would have been that. End of the at-bat. Case closed.

But beginning this season, under MLB’s new Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System, players can challenge balls and strikes.

And for a split-second, it looked like Raleigh might do just that. As Barksdale was ringing him up, Raleigh paused for a moment before heading to the dugout.

But no challenge came.

In fact, the Mariners went the entirety of their 6-4 season-opening loss without using a challenge. The Guardians challenged twice, going 1 for 2.

“It is new obviously for everybody, and I think maybe it doesn’t jump to the forefront of the mind all the time when you’re in the box,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said after the game. “But again, it’s part of the game now and something definitely we will use.”

The ABS Challenge System allows a pitcher, catcher or hitter to challenge a ball or strike call by tapping his hat or helmet. Challenges must be made immediately – within roughly 2 seconds – and without any assistance from coaches or the dugout.

The system uses cameras to measure the exact location of each pitch as it crosses the middle of the plate – the moment when the ball is 8 1/2 inches from the front of the plate and 8 1/2 inches from the back. Once a challenge is initiated, the result is immediately shown on the ballpark’s videoboard.

Each team starts the game with two challenges. If a challenge is successful, the team retains its challenge. If a challenge is unsuccessful, the team loses a challenge. In essence, a team doesn’t run out of challenges until its second unsuccessful challenge.

Given that the Mariners still had both of their challenges left, Raleigh’s eighth-inning strikeout seemed like an optimal situation to use one.

But as Wilson mentioned, it’ll probably take some time for players to get accustomed to – especially since the challenge has to come almost immediately.

MLB tested the ABS Challenge System it in the minor leagues for the past several years. But for major leaguers, their only experience with it has come during the past two spring trainings.

“We’ve talked about it and we’ll remind the guys as much as we can about using the challenges,” Wilson said. “And when they’re close, that’s when they’ll definitely be used, and especially late in the game.”

The game’s first ABS challenge came in the third inning, when Guardians leadoff hitter Steven Kwan challenged a called third strike on a cutter from Logan Gilbert that painted the outside edge of the zone. Kwan’s challenge was unsuccessful, prompting a loud cheer from the T-Mobile Park crowd.

The Guardians’ successful challenge came in the fifth. Guardians starting pitcher Tanner Bibee threw a 2-2 changeup to Cole Young on the inside edge of the plate that was initially called a ball. But Guardians catcher Bo Naylor – the brother of Mariners first baseman Josh Naylor – challenged the call and was successful, resulting in a called third strike.

After opener, Seattle Mariners still adjusting to ABS system

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