Inside How ABS Challenges Sparked Mariners’ Skid-Busting Win

In tight ballgames full of tension, managers are fond of citing little things as difference makers in the results. Until this year, those small things only meant a clutch hit, a standout pitch or a stellar defensive play.

This year, there is another trick in the little things toolbox – the highly dramatic ABS challenge on balls and strikes. While a few games have ended with ABS challenges, the drama of the new technology can be found in the middle innings, such as the afternoon of Aug. 13, when the Mariners really needing a win correctly guessed the strike zone in the sixth inning of a rare 1-0 game at Yankee Stadium.

Catcher Jhonny Pereda was making his 21st start and catching Logan Gilbert, whom the Mariners really needed to be on his game following a rough outing by Bryce Miller and some shaky relief pitching.

Gilbert was locked in a tense 1-0 game when he threw a 2-2 fastball to Trent Grisham that clipped the outside corner, originally called ball three.

Two batters later, Gilbert threw another two-strike fastball in an almost identical location, and instead of evening the count, he got the strikeout and avoided throwing any extra pitches due to an incorrect call from plate umpire Rob Drake, whose calls get overturned 62.5 percent of the time.

Mariners soak in ABS challenge victories

The average overturn is 54 percent, and fielders hold a 58 percent success rate when doing so. For the Mariners, their rate is at the bottom of hitters and in the top half of the league, as their batters are successful 43 percent of the time and their fielders are successful at 59 percent of ABS.

The three challenges by their backup catcher gave them 115 challenges by fielders, the third-fewest in the American League.

Given how they were outscored 34-10 during a six-game skid, winning those challenges proved a significant turning point and made the drama of the few seconds it takes for the challenge to get resolved even more exciting.

“Sick,” said Weston Wilson, who had a decent look from his spot at third base. “To me they looked very close. It’s hard to pull the trigger on those because if you burn one and it misses by an edge, you got one left. Props to him for challenging all of those today. They were all nicking the zone. That was great to see.”

“That was huge,” Gilbert said. “That was a turning moment for me on the mound I felt like. The first one I thought was there. The second one I felt (had) no chance. I was telling Jhonny when he challenged, no, no, no and then we won it. I learned my lesson – don’t doubt Jhonny out there.”

Winning those challenges gave the Mariners less opportunities to blow another game in the late innings in the Bronx, which is why, along with Gilbert’s dominance, it was a major postgame topic.

“Those challenges were everything and Jhonny was all over it,” said manager Dan Wilson, who could appreciate it even more as a former catcher. “Just a great job by him today and turning those balls into strikeouts, not only does it help your pitcher out, it’s a huge momentum boost and I thought he just challenged very beautifully today, and it was a big part of the game.”

Winning ABS Challenges Are Rare Highlight of Late for Mariners

The Mariners were eight outs away from their World Series trip when Eduard Bazardo allowed a monster homer to George Springer in Game 7 of the ALCS.

The crushing loss was viewed by many as a step in Seattle’s ascension into a team picked to reach the World Series with a young pitching staff headlined by Gilbert, Bryan Woo and George Kirby, along with Cal Raleigh coming off setting a record by hitting 60 homers as a catcher.

For most of the first three months, it was a series of stops and starts in a weak AL West as the Mariners never reached more than four games over .500 and headed to the Bronx in a skid that relegated them to fading status.

The six-game skid they ended was merely Seattle’s sixth in its past 21 games. It is a stretch that would bury them in places like the AL East or the NL West, but it merely left them slightly closer to first place than the Yankees. Instead of being completely buried, the Mariners are within five of the lead, and a weekend in Houston is on the horizon, where three wins get them to two games out at 60-65.