MLB's New Ball-Strike System: Umpire's Nightmare

0:00On March 29th, Major League Baseball rolled out a new automated ball strike challenge system this year, giving each team two challenges per game that. They keep if they win. In Saturday's matchup between the Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox, home plate umpire CB Bucknor faced a barrage of them, turning what should have. Been a routine game into a clinic on bad calls. The trouble started early in the second inning when the Red Sox challenged a ball call on a pitch from Sunny Gray, but it held up. They got one more right in the third, but after that, Bucknor missed big time. The Reds fired back with five straight successful challenges, flipping strikes into balls by inches outside the zone. Fans and analysts were buzzing, especially after Red's broadcaster Sam LeCure joked before the game that Bucknor might shadow the record for. Overturn calls. By the eighth inning, Cincinnati was five for five against him, and the crowd watched every mistake replayed on the big screen. He's boiled over when Bucknor rang up Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story on a shaky checkswing

1:03to end the eighth. Boston manager Alex Cora argued hard, got himself tossed, but kept story in the game. It highlighted how the system spotlights umps who struggle with the zone. This ABS setup is already shaking things up, forcing umpires to sharpen their eyes while showing which players nail the strike zone best. Take more games like this, as teens adapt, and the tech keeps calls honest. That's the story for today, MLB News Today, Driven by AI. I'm Corey with The Story.