Mets get first taste of mental challenge of new ABS system: 'They got him there'
Huascar Brazobánthought he had just gotten out of a big-time jam in the top half of the fifth inning on Tuesday afternoon at Citi Field. And in all other years of Major League Baseball’s history, the Mets ' reliever did just that.
But this season is different from all others before it, and home plate umpire Brian O'Nora’s called strike three was merely an initial ruling and not the final word declaring Adrian Del Castillo guilty of being caught looking at a fastball on the inside corner to leave the bases loaded.
The Diamondbacks ’ DH initiated the appeals process and the ABS challenge system quickly overruled O’Nora’s enthusiastic call as the right-hander’s pitch was 0.3 inches off the plate.
“It plays a big factor, big role,” Mets manager Carlos Mendozasaid of ABS after the game. “It was a really good challenge from [Del Castillo], really close pitch. Gotta give them credit there.”
Brazobán, who celebrated as a reliever is expected to after believing they ended a threat and preserved a 2-0 lead, had to quickly regain his composure for a 2-2 count. But it was Del Castillo who triumphed, driving the very next pitch, a 90 mph changeup that went right over the heart of the plate, into right field for a game-tying single.
“They got him there,” the manager said.
Mendoza added that the mental side of the new ABS challenge system was something they discussed with the players at the start of spring training.
“That particular spot right there, when there’s traffic, when there’s runners on. And you think you executed a pitch, you get the call, and then the hitter challenges,” Mendoza continued. “And then you gotta get back on the mound. That’s not an easy situation, and it’s new for all of us here.
“You think you’re out of the woods, and before you know it, you gotta get back on the mound.”
Reliever Luke Weaver called the situation the “challenge part” of the new system.
"I think that is the perfect example of what the ABS has for us,” Weaver said. “We want to get things right. We want the hitter obviously wanting to be right, and he was, but it's very close.”
He added that while he hasn’t gotten to experience the emotion of a big overturn going against him, “I just imagine that your body just kind of tends to want to lean towards the celebratory part of it, but you've kind of got to hold yourself.”
“It's kind of like the play in the field when the challenge happens. You see it as an out, and then you start to walk, and the umpire holds you up. There's this weird no man's land feel,” he continued. “I think it's a similar thing with the ABS, and in a crucial moment like that in a big inning, it's just so close.
“It can be disheartening, but I think if you're in a good frame of mind, which it's not always going to happen, I think you've got to fight for that. I think you've got to fight to be prepared for the worst and then be excited when it happens, because it's going to happen your way at some point."
The Diamondbacks took advantage of baseball's new reality by scoring three runs, including an RBI bloop double one batter later, but for Brazobán and the rest of the Mets, the learning experience was served with a side of victory after a walk-off win in the 10th .
