Sunday’s Triple A game between the Reno Aces and Salt Lake Bees featured an ending you’ve never seen in a big league game. Seriously—the rules don’t allow it.
After Salt Lake took a 3–2 lead in the top of the 10th inning, Reno tied it up in the bottom of the inning on a single by Kyle Lewis. The Bees then intentionally walked the next batter, Phillip Evans, to load the bases. But then pitcher Kolton Ingram couldn’t find the zone. His first two pitches to Ali Sánchez missed wildly. The third was well inside.
With the count at 3–0, Ingram needed to throw a strike. Ball four would mean a walk-off walk for the Aces. But his fastball missed inside. The game was over. Or was it?
The call on the field stands, @Aces win!
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) August 13, 2023
After an unsuccessful challenge of the final pitch by the visitors, @Dbacks catcher Ali Sanchez works a walk-off walk. pic.twitter.com/svzY9MmCG0
The Bees still had one last hope: a challenge of the umpire’s call. While the review determined that the call was correct, it’s still a pretty cool way for a game to end.
The challenge system is one of the ways MLB is experimenting with calling balls and strikes in the minor leagues.
Triple A games played on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays use what’s known as “full ABS”—what’s known to fans as “robo-umps.” Under that system, Hawk-Eye technology calls balls and strikes, with the umpire just relaying the calls.
Games on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, though, use the challenge system, under which the home plate umpire calls balls and strikes but players have the ability to challenge a call. When a challenge is made, the call is reviewed using Hawk-Eye. Each team gets three challenges per game and retains its challenge if it is successful.
MLB’s repeated experiments with alternate methods for calling balls and strikes suggest that the system that has been in place for the game’s entire history won’t last forever. If technology is going to be used to call pitches, the challenge system seems like a good middle ground. It was interesting to see how smoothly it worked in the Aces–Bees game, even at the game’s most critical juncture.
