A’s fall on wrong end of apparent ABS glitch against Yankees

MLB's new Automated Ball-Strike challenge system appeared to hit a rare glitch during the A's-Yankees game.

BY JOSH DUBOW, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

May 31, 2026, 12:35 PM Updated: Jun 1, 2026, 11:44 am

A's manager Mark Kotsay Seattle Mariners May 2026...

A's manager Mark Kotsay looks on during a 2026 game. (Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

(Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The ABS system appeared to hit a rare glitch during the Athletics’ game against the New York Yankees on Saturday night.

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A pitch to the A’s 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.

The replay never showed up on the videoboard as usual. But after a short delay, home 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 did lose 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 got to see the replay at the end of the inning on the iPad in the dugout, which is standard, and saw that it should have been called a ball. Kotsay went out to talk to the umpires between innings but was unable to 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 ear piece. That’s something we need clarified through the league and we will have that conversation with the league.”

Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Sunday he hadn’t seen that happen before this season.

“My understanding was that we got one,” Boone said.

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