A team wasted a challenge on a pitch that was clearly a ball and ended up paying for it. On a full count with two outs, they challenged a high fastball that missed badly. The dugout even laughed at the decision. That left them with only one challenge for the rest of the game. Soon after, a fastball was called a ball despite all available tracking data showing it was a strike. If they had saved the first challenge, they could’ve overturned that call. The mistake cost them another borderline pitch later in the same inning where the data again showed it was a strike, but they were out of chances to challenge.
The missed challenge also seemed to shake the pitcher and catcher’s trust in what they were seeing. They kept relying on a changeup that had worked earlier, but as the inning went on, those same pitches started getting different calls. The umpire called all the changeups correctly, but missed on two fastballs that should’ve been strikes. Overlay graphics showed how identical some of these pitches were, especially the ones they didn’t challenge. There’s speculation that this kind of mistake could shape how teams manage challenges once automated or semi-automated strike zones come in, likely in a few years. Teams might hire staff just to game-plan around ump tendencies and use their challenges strategically. In this case, a single bad decision changed the tone of the inning and exposed how much weight a challenge can carry.