{"id":658245,"date":"2026-04-02T06:43:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T06:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/658245\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T06:43:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T06:43:18","slug":"orioles-basallo-makes-mlbs-first-game-ending-abs-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/658245\/","title":{"rendered":"Orioles’ Basallo makes MLB’s first game-ending ABS challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

BALTIMORE — Samuel Basallo<\/a> made a little history when the Orioles<\/a> catcher became the first major leaguer to end a game with a successful challenge via the automated ball-strike system.<\/p>\n

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

Albert Su\u00e1rez<\/a> was on the mound for the Orioles in the top of the ninth inning against Texas when his 1-2 pitch to Evan Carter<\/a> 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’s 8-3 win<\/a> was in the books.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

1 Related<\/p>\n

“I think we had two (challenges left) at that point,” the 21-year-old Basallo said through an interpreter. “I thought why not use it? Better to use it and see what happens instead of holding onto it.”<\/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

“I wasn’t thinking it was a strike, and then when he challenged I was like, ‘OK, let’s see,'” Su\u00e1rez said. “Good thing we got it.”<\/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<\/a> 8-6. Twins manager Derek Shelton was ejected after that one — he thought the challenge signal didn’t come fast enough.<\/p>\n

Su\u00e1rez was called back to the majors after Zach Eflin<\/a> had to leave Tuesday’s 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

“I think I like it more after what happened today,” Su\u00e1rez said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BALTIMORE — Samuel Basallo made a little history when the Orioles catcher became the first major leaguer to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2374],"tags":[143,47,2538,5,4,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-658245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-orioles","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-orioles","10":"tag-baltimoreorioles","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-orioles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658245","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=658245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}