CINCINNATI, Ohio – The bulk of the Automatic Ball-Strike System (ABS) chaos in Saturday’s 6-5 Red Sox loss came after Sonny Gray’s four-inning start.
The Red Sox ran out of challenges by the top of the third, having gone 1 for 3 in their attempts. The Reds didn’t request a challenge while Gray was pitching, but they went 5 for 5 in challenge attempts against relievers Danny Coulombe and Ryan Watson.
“I’m not a fan, but it is what it is,” Gray said postgame of the new technology, which Major League Baseball introduced this season after years of testing in the independent and minor leagues. Asked to elaborate, the veteran righty said, “It’s just a weird game we’re playing now.”
“Some our way, some not our ways,” he continued. “It’s just a different game we’re playing.”
Gray praised Watson, the Rule 5 draftee who made his MLB debut with two outs and two men on base in the bottom of the sixth, and immediately found himself in the ABS deep end. The Reds’ last four challenges were against Watson: designated hitter Eugenio Suárez challenged back-to-back pitches during a bases-loaded at-bat in the sixth, and right-fielder Will Benson successfully overturned two strike calls during his at-bat in the seventh.
Despite the tumult, Watson managed to pitch 2 1/3 scoreless innings.
“He saved us,” Gray said. “To make a pitch, get it challenged, make another pitch, get it challenged, and then come in a 3-2 count with the bases loaded with two outs and then to make another pitch, that was impressive.”
All of Major League Baseball is adjusting to this technology. It’s a game-changer in the most literal sense. But it could be a more difficult transition for veterans like Gray, now in his 14th big-league season and drafted when several of his Red Sox teammates were in elementary school.
“I don’t think anyone – you could say you did it in the minor leagues, you do it in spring training,” Gray said, “it’s not the same.”
Watson, who became familiar with ABS in the minors, concurred.
“Not at that magnitude,” Watson said of the charged atmosphere during challenges. “That’s probably the loudest I’ve heard a stadium while pitching, so it was intense for sure.”
“We’ll see how it continues to play out,” Gray said. “But I mean, yeah, I don’t know. I guess I come from a different era of the game, but I’ve got to be able to adjust and adapt.”
The same could be said for umpires. They’re facing not only increased scrutiny, but for the first time in MLB history, consequences for missing calls. CB Bucknor, who was behind the plate Saturday, called 88% of the game’s 223 total pitches accurately, with 12.2 fewer correct calls than the average umpire, and had a 72% accuracy rating on strikes, significantly below average.
“There’s guys that have been in the league forever,” manager Alex Cora said Sunday morning. “It’s hard.”
“It’s just different,” Gray said. “Very different.”