Tarik Skubal didn’t waste any time taking advantage of the automatic balls and strikes (ABS) challenge system on Tuesday night.
The Detroit Tigers ace and American League starter successfully called a challenge and got San Diego Padres star Manny Machado out in the opening inning of the All-Star Game on Tuesday night at Truist Park in Atlanta in what was the first ever use of the ABS challenge system in the Midsummer Classic.
The ABS challenge system, which has been tested at the Triple-A level for a couple of seasons now, was used in about 60% of spring training games this season. According to data the league released in March, a little more than half of challenges were actually overturned. Each challenge added an average of 13.8 seconds to a game and about four challenges were used per contest.
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MLB’s competition committee is going to meet later this summer to determine whether the ABS challenge system is going to be used in the majors full-time next season. But while that’s still being explored, the league opted to put it in place for Tuesday night’s All-Star Game for the first time in history.
Under the system, a pitcher, catcher or hitter can challenge an umpire’s call of a ball or strike immediately after the pitch in question. Each team was given two challenges during the All-Star Game, but challenges are retained if they are successful.
So once Skubal called for the challenge, which he did immediately, the stadium video board and the Fox broadcast showed the Hawk-Eye view that monitored the exact location of the previous pitch. That showed that the ball was in fact in the strike zone, which resulted in Machado receiving his third strike. That gave the AL their second out of the inning.
While time will tell if the ABS challenge system enters the league permanently, it worked perfectly on Tuesday night.
