WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The ABS system appeared to hit a rare glitch during the Athletics' game against the New York Yankees on Saturday night.
A pitch to A's left fielder Tyler Soderstrom in the fourth inning was confirmed as a strike even though the replay showed it missed the zone by a little less than an inch.
The call in question came in the fourth inning of the 6-4 win by the Athletics when Ryan Weathers threw a 2-0 pitch that was called a strike. Soderstrom immediately challenged the call because he thought the pitch was low.
After a short delay, plate umpire Adam Beck announced that the pitch was confirmed as a strike, and the A's lost their challenge. But the replay on MLB.com showed the pitch was 0.8 inches low and should have been called a ball. It ended up being mostly moot as Soderstrom eventually drew a walk, although the A's lost one challenge.
"The explanation on the field was the umpires were told from the communication upstairs, the controller of the ABS, that the call was confirmed," A's manager Mark Kotsay said after the game.
Kotsay said the A's saw the replay at the end of the inning on the iPad in the dugout, which is standard, and noticed that it should have been called a ball. Kotsay talked to the umpires between innings but couldn't get the challenge back.
"Obviously, they don't have access to the iPad," Kotsay said. "They only have access to the information they're being told through their earpiece. That's something we need clarified through the league, and we will have that conversation with the league."
