Mar 30, 2026; Seattle, Washington, USA; New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone (17) signals for a pitching change during the seventh inning against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images
For years, fans of Major League Baseball have been begging for umpires to be held to some shred of accountability. It has finally arrived in the form of the automated ball-strike challenge system (ABS), and the Yankees used it to perfection in their 2-1 loss to the Seattle Mariners on Monday night.
The Bronx Bombers won each of their five challenges against Mike Estabrook, and tensions understandably flared between the embarrassed home-plate ump and Yankees manager Aaron Boone.
“Really good job by the guys when you have that kind of success rate,” Boone said after the game. “It’s not going to be like that every night, but I thought every one was obviously warranted. A couple in some key spots to give us a chance to build an inning. We just weren’t able to build much offensively.
In the bottom of the second inning, Jose Caballero correctly challenged that two called strikes were, in fact, balls. That included a full-count pitch that Estabrook initially banged Caballero out on, but it was deemed to be too low, and the Yankees’ infielder was awarded a free pass to first.
In the fourth, Estabrook rung up Giancarlo Stanton on a low 1-2 slider that was challenged and overturned. He singled on the very next pitch. One batter later, Jazz Chisholm Jr. challenged another low slider that was overturned, though he later struck out.
Estabrook and Boone proceeded to get into a verbal exchange, with Estabrook warning the Yankees’ skipper that he did not “want to hear another word.”
“You get a little frustrated,” Boone said. “Those are razor-thin pitches sometimes. You don’t always want to be challenging.”
It will also understandably bruise the ego of these umpires, having to publicly acknowledge that they are getting calls wrong — something they never had to do before in the game’s history. No batting team has challenged pitches more than the Yankees’ eight this season, and they have won seven of those challenges.
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