{"id":657755,"date":"2026-04-02T00:37:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T00:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/657755\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T00:37:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T00:37:35","slug":"orioles-beat-rangers-on-game-ending-abs-challenge-better-to-use-it-and-see-what-happens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/657755\/","title":{"rendered":"Orioles beat Rangers on game-ending ABS challenge: ‘Better to use it and see what happens’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A walk-off via ABS challenge? It took less than a week for Major League Baseball to see the first of its kind. The system, in which a hitter, pitcher, or catcher can challenge a called ball or strike and have it promptly overturned or upheld via review, is new to MLB<\/a> this season and already we’ve seen some notable use cases. The biggest to date came in Wednesday’s matinee between the Texas Rangers<\/a> and the Baltimore Orioles<\/a>, an\u00a08-3<\/a> win for the host O’s. <\/p>\n

With two outs in the top of the ninth, Baltimore right-handed reliever Albert Su\u00e1rez delivered a 1-2 fastball to Evan Carter<\/a> that plate umpire Manny Gonzalez ruled a ball to even the count at 2-2. Behind the plate, however, 21-year-old catcher Samuel Basallo<\/a> determined that Su\u00e1rez’s up-and-away pitch nicked the corner of the zone and tapped his helmeted head to initiate the challenge. Let’s roll history-making tape: <\/p>\n

Basallo’s successful protestation secured Su\u00e1rez’s first save — this one of the three-inning variety — since Aug. 6, 2017. It was Gonzalez’s fourth overturned ball-strike call of the game.<\/p>\n

The catcher said after the game that he wasn’t even sure if the pitch was a strike, but took a chance with two challenges remaining.<\/p>\n

“I thought, ‘Why not use it?'” Basallo said through an interpreter (via MLB.com<\/a>). “Better to use it and see what happens.”<\/p>\n

As you’ve no doubt noticed during the course of spring training and the young season to date, the ruling takes mere seconds and doesn’t drain a great deal of energy from the moment. Indeed, one can argue that it adds a layer of suspense to critical moments such as this one (well, as critical as a moment can be in a five-run game on April 1). <\/p>\n

Some will fret that the possibility of an LCS or World Series ending in such a manner is too grave to contemplate, but the quick turnaround and additional seconds of tension won’t preempt any celebratory dog piles. It’ll look a little like the above, which hardly amounts to some kind of nightmare scenario in terms of optics. <\/p>\n

As for Basallo, the author of this history-making moment, it was a fine day indeed. The highly regarded young talent earlier in the game smote his first home run of the 2026 season, and it was a booming off no less a moundsman than Nathan Eovaldi<\/a>: <\/p>\n

The outcome of this game pushed the Orioles to 3-3 on the season, while the Rangers are now 4-2.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A walk-off via ABS challenge? It took less than a week for Major League Baseball to see the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[49222,143,47,2538,5,2266,4,83350,394,125,7326,69],"class_list":["post-657755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baltimore-orioles","tag-abs-challenge","tag-baltimore","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-baltimoreorioles","tag-baseball","tag-evan-carter","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-abs","tag-nathan-eovaldi","tag-orioles","tag-samuel-basallo","tag-texas-rangers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116332321200985313","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657755","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=657755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}