It didn’t take a computer to predict that at some point in 2026, an MLB game would end with an umpire’s call overturned by a Hawk-eye camera.
That’s what happened on Thursday.
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With two outs in the ninth inning, umpire Ryan Wills called Atlanta Braves pitcher Luis Vargas’ two strikes against Blue Jays batter Josh Rivera.
Braves catcher Archer Bookman disagreed with that request. He tapped his helmet to signal a challenge. The game was paused for a moment, and an automatic ball strike graphic showed fans at CoolToday Park what Bookman suspected.
Vargas’ pitch was a strike 3, just above the upper limit of Rivera’s strike zone. The game is over.
The call was reversed. The Braves won 9-5. Any threat to the Blue Jays’ bases was gone before they could say “ABS.”
MLB announced that its September 2025 Automatic Ball Strike Challenge system has been approved through the league’s Competition Committee.
The challenge system, which has been tested in minor leagues starting in 2022 and in MLB spring training games last year, is a compromise between ‘robot umpires’ and the century-old tradition of human umpires calling variable strike zones.
In announcing the change, MLB emphasized that the challenge will only add “approximately 57 seconds of overtime” to each spring training game. If the Blue Jays had been able to keep hitting and extend their ninth-inning rally, the Braves’ game-ending challenge may have been cut by more than a minute.
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(tagsTotranslation)Atlanta Braves
