{"id":657828,"date":"2026-04-02T01:26:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T01:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/657828\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T01:26:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T01:26:21","slug":"baltimores-samuel-basallo-makes-mlbs-first-game-ending-robo-ump-challenge-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/657828\/","title":{"rendered":"Baltimore’s Samuel Basallo makes MLB’s first game-ending robo-ump challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

BALTIMORE (AP) \u2014 Samuel Basallo made a little history when the Baltimore catcher became the first major leaguer to end a game with a successful challenge via the Automated Ball-Strike System.<\/a><\/p>\n

No word on whether he got to keep the ball.<\/p>\n

Albert Su\u00e1rez was on the mound for the Orioles in the top of the ninth inning against Texas when his 1-2 pitch to Evan Carter with two outs was called a ball by plate umpire Manny Gonzalez. Basallo challenged, the replay showed most of the ball catching the upper outside corner of the strike zone, and Baltimore\u2019s 8-3 win<\/a> was in the books.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we had two (challenges left) at that point,\u201d the 21-year-old Basallo said through a translator. \u201cI thought why not use it? Better to use it and see what happens instead of holding onto it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Basallo, who also hit a 437-foot homer Wednesday, used a little body English while the replay was in progress, then headed toward the mound for a hug with Su\u00e1rez, who pitched three innings for his first save since 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t thinking it was a strike, and then when he challenged I was like, \u2018OK, let\u2019s see,\u2019\u201d Su\u00e1rez said. \u201cGood thing we got it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the first season this technology is being used in regular-season big league games.<\/p>\n

The Orioles used a challenge in a crucial ninth-inning spot Sunday, turning a full-count walk into a strikeout as they held off Minnesota 8-6. Twins manager Derek Shelton was ejected<\/a> after that one \u2014 he thought the challenge signal didn\u2019t come fast enough.<\/p>\n

Su\u00e1rez was called back to the majors after Zach Eflin had to leave<\/a> Tuesday\u2019s start with elbow discomfort. After an early flight Wednesday, he was able to give the rest of the bullpen a rest.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old Su\u00e1rez was asked his view on the ABS in general.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I like it more after what happened today,\u201d Su\u00e1rez said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/mlb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BALTIMORE (AP) \u2014 Samuel Basallo made a little history when the Baltimore catcher became the first major leaguer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[47217,143,47,2538,5,1728,2266,21231,4771,1212,4,256,125,7326,185,866,7505,1567,5099,96],"class_list":["post-657828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baltimore-orioles","tag-albert-surez","tag-baltimore","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-baltimoreorioles","tag-baseball","tag-derek-shelton","tag-evan-carter","tag-manny-gonzalez","tag-maryland","tag-md-state-wire","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-baseball","tag-orioles","tag-samuel-basallo","tag-sports","tag-sports-officiating","tag-technology","tag-texas","tag-tx-state-wire","tag-zach-eflin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116332513423324655","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657828","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=657828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}