{"id":651030,"date":"2026-03-29T19:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T19:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/651030\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T19:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T19:24:15","slug":"weird-game-were-playing-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/651030\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Weird game we’re playing now’"},"content":{"rendered":"

CINCINNATI, Ohio \u2013 The bulk of the Automatic Ball-Strike System (ABS) chaos in Saturday\u2019s 6-5 Red Sox loss<\/a> came after Sonny Gray\u2019s four-inning start.<\/p>\n

The Red Sox ran out of challenges by the top of the third, having gone 1 for 3 in their attempts. The Reds didn\u2019t request a challenge while Gray was pitching, but they went 5 for 5 in challenge attempts against relievers Danny Coulombe and Ryan Watson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a fan, but it is what it is,\u201d Gray said postgame of the new technology<\/a>, which Major League Baseball introduced this season after years of testing in the independent and minor leagues. Asked to elaborate, the veteran righty said, \u201cIt\u2019s just a weird game we\u2019re playing now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSome our way, some not our ways,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt\u2019s just a different game we\u2019re playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019 last four challenges were against Watson: designated hitter Eugenio Su\u00e1rez 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.<\/p>\n

Despite the tumult, Watson managed to pitch 2 1\/3 scoreless innings.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe saved us,\u201d Gray said. \u201cTo 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of Major League Baseball is adjusting to this technology. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anyone \u2013\u00a0you could say you did it in the minor leagues, you do it in spring training,\u201d Gray said, \u201cit\u2019s not the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watson, who became familiar with ABS in the minors, concurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot at that magnitude,\u201d Watson said of the charged atmosphere during challenges. \u201cThat\u2019s probably the loudest I\u2019ve heard a stadium while pitching, so it was intense for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see how it continues to play out,\u201d Gray said. \u201cBut I mean, yeah, I don\u2019t know. I guess I come from a different era of the game, but I\u2019ve got to be able to adjust and adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same could be said for umpires. They\u2019re 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\u2019s 223 total pitches accurately, with 12.2 fewer correct calls than the average umpire, and had a 72% accuracy rating on strikes<\/a>, significantly below average.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s guys that have been in the league forever,\u201d manager Alex Cora said Sunday morning. \u201cIt\u2019s hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just different,\u201d Gray said. \u201cVery different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI, Ohio \u2013 The bulk of the Automatic Ball-Strike System (ABS) chaos in Saturday\u2019s 6-5 Red Sox loss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2400],"tags":[47004,858,5,48,535,50,4259,4,83350,455,536,63678,1587],"class_list":["post-651030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cincinnati-reds","tag-abs-system","tag-alex-cora","tag-baseball","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-cincinnati","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-cincinnatireds","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-abs","tag-mlb-umpires","tag-reds","tag-ryan-watson","tag-sonny-gray"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116314103214391625","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}