{"id":506274,"date":"2026-03-06T01:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T01:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/506274\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T01:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T01:21:11","slug":"blue-jays-braves-game-ends-on-abs-challenge-when-umpire-blows-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/506274\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays-Braves game ends on ABS challenge when umpire blows call"},"content":{"rendered":"

You didn\u2019t need a computer to predict that, at some point in 2026, an MLB<\/a> game would end with an umpire\u2019s call being overturned by a Hawk-eye camera.<\/p>\n

Thursday, it happened.<\/p>\n

MORE: Dodgers likely adding ex-Blue Jays All-Star to MLB roster, Dave Roberts says<\/a><\/p>\n

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With two outs in the ninth inning, umpire Ryan Wills called a ball on Atlanta Braves pitcher Luis Vargas\u2019 two-strike offering to Blue Jays batter Josh Rivera.<\/p>\n

The Braves\u2019 catcher, Archer Bookman, disagreed with the call. He tapped his helmet, signaling a challenge. The game paused briefly, and the automatic-ball strike graphic showed fans at CoolToday Park what Bookman suspected.<\/p>\n

Vargas\u2019 pitch was strike three, just at the upper limit of Rivera\u2019s strike zone. The game was over.<\/p>\n

The call was overturned. The Braves won, 9-5. The Blue Jays\u2019 bases-loaded threat was gone before you could say \u201cABS.\u201d<\/p>\n

MLB announced<\/a> in September 2025 that the Automated Ball Strike challenge system was approved via the league\u2019s competition committee.<\/p>\n

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Tested in the minor leagues since 2022, and in MLB spring training games last year, the challenge system is a compromise between \u201crobot umpires\u201d and the century-old tradition of human umpires calling variable strike zones.<\/p>\n

When MLB announced the change, it emphasized that challenges added only \u201cabout 57 seconds of added time\u201d to each spring training game<\/a>. The Braves\u2019 game-ending challenge might have subtracted much more than a minute, had the Blue Jays been allowed to continue batting and extend their ninth-inning rally.<\/p>\n

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The post Blue Jays-Braves game ends on ABS challenge when umpire blows call<\/a> appeared first on The Big Lead<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You didn\u2019t need a computer to predict that, at some point in 2026, an MLB game would end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[230218,230219,2111,18619,4284,4279,230217,18709,363,99,227653],"class_list":["post-506274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-abs-challenge","tag-archer-bookman","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-blue-jays","tag-dave-roberts","tag-dodgers","tag-jays-all-star","tag-jurickson-profar","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-umpire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}