In his first battle against the automated ball-strike system, Paul Skenes was no match for the robots.
Pitching his first inning of the spring as he ramps up for both the Pittsburgh Pirates and Team USA’s World Baseball Classic squad, Skenes faced called strike challenges from Atlanta Braves batters on three occasions.
And the Braves successfully challenged all three calls by homeplate umpire Chris Segal – and added another in the second inning.
Two of the overturns definitely made life more difficult for Skenes. Braves first baseman Matt Olson – one of the game’s most disciplined hitters – challenged a 1-1 curveball that Segal called a strike, nicking the outside corner. Olson, a sheepish grin on his face, tapped his head just, you know, to see what happened.
Sure enough, Segal erred – by one-tenth of an inch, ABS ruled – and a 1-2 count became a 2-1 count. Olson went on to draw a two-out walk, illustrating how certain counts – such as 1-1 – are more pivotal and perhaps crucial to challenge.
Thusly emboldened, Jurickson Profar followed by challenging the first pitch – a 98.3 mph fastball seemingly on the outside corner. Segal? Wrong again, this time by a half-inch. And 0-1 became 1-0 and Profar drew a walk.
On challenge No. 3, Skenes finally took matters into his own hands. Jumping ahead 0-2 on Austin Riley, he fired a 99-mph fastball at the top of the zone. Segal punched Riley out – and Riley was tapping his helmet before Skenes could even think to trudge off the mound.
Call overturned – a whole 1.5 inches above the zone.
At that point, the camera turned to Skenes’ girlfriend, Livvy Dunne, in the stands at the Braves’ CoolToday Park in North Port, Fla. She looked far more relieved when Skenes threw an almost identical pitch – just a smidge lower and in the zone.
And Riley swung through it anyway.
The Braves’ pedantry cost Skenes anywhere from three to 13 more pitches, finishing with 31 for the inning. Not necessarily what the Pirates or Skenes wanted.
But he still put up a zero and struck out two – proving robots can only break Skenes down so much.
Yet challenges will be a way of life in this, the first year of the ABS system in which teams are granted two challenges for both sides of the ball – and get to keep them if they’re successful. Spring 2025 was a trial run, but with the system going live on Opening Day, teams are doing what they can to ace the system.
And perhaps the Braves got the NL’s reigning Cy Young Award winner off his game just a bit.
In his second inning of work, Skenes was his own enemy, issuing walks to Mike Yastrzemski and Mauricio Dubón. Leadoff batter Ronald Acuña Jr. then challenged a fastball that ABS ruled was 1.5 inches outside.
Skenes got Acuña on a pop-up, seemingly no worse for wear. Yet this was Skenes’ lone spring start for the Pirates before the WBC, and they’d hoped to get him through three innings.
Instead, he was lifted with one out in the third, his 53 pitches not enough to complete the frame. Skenes struck out four but also walked four – technology no help in his efforts at pitch efficiency.