Umpire denies 2 ABS challenges in one game, a breakdown
What Happened
Umpire Carlos Torres denied two ABS challenges.
Why This Matters
Carlos Torres absolutely botched two ABS challenges in the same game and the A's were NOT happy about it. When a manager challenges a call and the tech says it's wrong, you gotta accept it, but Torres kept denying them anyway. This is the kind of ump breakdown that makes you yell at your TV.
With 191K views, this sits at #1040 all-time, proving that nothing gets people fired up like an umpire who won't listen to the robot.
Key Moments
Who / What Is Involved
Players: Carlos Torres.
Key Terms Mentioned
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentUmpire Carlos Torres denied two ABS
challenges. This breakdown is brought to
you by Nitsa. We're in the first inning.
A's Orioles. A's versus O's. A battle of
the vowels. And Severino is trying to
open the game up with two consecutive
outs. 3-1 pitch. Likes his spot. No, it
was a ball. Taps his head. Umpire's
like, "No, too late, man. Too slow."
Coach is like, "What? What are you
talking? He tapped it too slow. It's too
slow." was that's wrong. That's
wrong.
And it's still wrong. It did not
change in between the two times he said
it. It was still wrong. He's seething.
They're mad. The runner goes to first
base now. Ball four. The inning
continues, but the gods are going to
side with the Athletics and say, "You
throw him out easily and tag him in the
face." That umpire makes a proper call.
So, he is out. It just took a couple
extra. No, it didn't even really add any
pitches. You just got caught stealing.
And now we hit that same spot basically
and it's a strike. And then we hit the
same spot on the bottom edge again and
it's strike three. So they were all, you
know, strikes. It worked out. Well,
let's go to the third inning. I'll
explain what happened there at the end
because we got two cases of this. McNeel
is at bat now for the Athletics. And
it's the top of the third inning and
we're going to have another denial.
We've got first pitch of the inning in
there, strike one. Next pitch of the
inning, fouled back. 0 and2. They're
going to go right at him. Get the strike
out. Top of the zone. They love it. Goes
to throw it around. Tap tap tap. Hey,
we're going to challenge that. Umpire's
like, "What?" Pitcher Bass's like, "Hey,
we tapped." And you could hear some of
the hot mics bleed through here.
>> He didn't tap. I didn't hear it. He's
Yes, he did. He's like, "I I didn't hear
it. I called it a ball." He said he was
going to throw it around and then he
came up and tapped. Oh, I didn't hear
it. What the do you mean you
couldn't hear it? It's right in front of
you. I don't know. I didn't hear it. But
he's right in front of you. Well, I
don't know. Oh, what even happened? What
happened? They're trying to figure it
out. This guy missed it, too. He tap
tapped what is this a new rule this
year? Yo, you got to lock it the
in. We got to lock it the in,
Carlos. Hey. Hey, I hear you. No more.
All right. No more. We got to lock in.
Let's go. Let's go. And then all of his
coaches start chirping. You can see the
guy uh on the left by the phone. He's
like, he's he's chirping. He tapped. And
then the other coaches and offscreen to
the right is Miguel Cairo. And he's
chirping too. He's you're out of here.
And look at look, this is funny. Miguel
Cairo knows that he got ejected. starts
stepping up on the step to go fight, but
then he realizes maybe maybe it wasn't
me. Maybe maybe I'll play at Koi. And
manager is like, wait, what? He's like,
who who got ejected? Me? Did I is it me?
And his coach is like, nah, it is him.
And he's like, what is is him? Yeah, it
was him. And now Miguel Cairo is going
to yell at him. And I couldn't I don't
know if this was Spanish or English or
what, but he's fiery and he's hot and
he's telling him that he hates his guts
probably. He's like, "Okay, cool. I hate
myself sometimes, too." and get out of
here. And they're throwing him back into
the dugout and he's like riding that
step just to get a final word in. HE'S
LIKE, "IT'S HOT AND I HATE YOU." And
then he leaves and that's that's it. Now
umpire Carlo Source puts his mouth guard
back in, feels hot, wipes his head, puts
his helmet on, and he's ready to go. So
let's take a look at these two because
we got both managers now looking out and
being like, "What the hell, dude?" And
he's like, "Yeah, I was there a couple
innings ago." So let's take a look and
break down what happened on these two
and why they got denied. The rule says
the tap has to come right away within
around two seconds and no external help
and you can't do any other movements
before you tap. That's kind of like the
general guideline of the rule. The
problem is for catchers, it's harder.
The batter hears shack and they know
when they're two seconds start. The
catchers if they don't hear ball or
that's outside or that's inside, they
don't know. They're just in limbo and
then they have to realize, oh he's
not calling it. So this he thinks it
might be a delayed punch out. Like he
thinks the umpire might be taking two
steps back to HAVE THE DRAMATIC MOMENT
STRIKE THREE. So he's got to wait that
out. So what I did was I found the punch
out in the next at bat and I wanted to
see how long it takes the umpire Carlos
Torres to do his strike three call. So
you're going to hear it and I put it on
screen.
right there. That's how he does it. So,
it's real quick.
Now, let's put these side by side and
have it be the same timing. Even though
he doesn't say anything for ball four,
he's just quiet. It's the same cadence
if the catcher was like, "Well, I know
it would be around here." That's when
the timer starts on the tapping. So,
right.
So, right there. Okay. We synced him up
is when he starts the strike call. So in
his head you maybe he mumbled it all
four very meekly and the catcher has to
hear it. Ready, set, go. One
Mississippi, two Mississippi. I got him
tapping in time. And that's not an
official count. That's me saying one
Mississippi, two Mississippi. And
sometimes maybe I'm too fast on that,
but I've got him tapping in time. Ready?
One Mississippi, two miss tap tap tap
tap tap. And he saw him do it. He heard
it. It gets his attention. He looks
down. I don't know why that one didn't
count. It seemed well within reason for
me, especially if you're not going to
vocalize ball four. You got to give the
catcher, he's got to be able to hear the
starting gun or he doesn't know the race
has begun. Poem.
Now, let's look at the next one cuz this
one is entirely different. We've got the
O2 pitch. And once again, the catcher is
waiting. See, he goes to throw it around
right away. And he's waiting to hear,
but he never hears it. As soon as he
doesn't hear it, he goes to the helmet.
And what happened here is he's just not
loud enough. You could hear the umpire
say, "I didn't hear it." Now, they have
been told, "Make sure you say it with
your mouth and tap the helmet." There's
a physical cue and they have told the
catchers and the batters that you should
also say, "I want to challenge that."
Or, "Oh, challenging that and both." And
the catcher, I don't even, you know,
maybe you got bang yourself in the head
real loud and make it noticeable. But
he's not looking at him. You can see
he's not looking at him. And then you
you'll see what it looks like when he's
looking at him. That
uh
there tilts his head down. Uh he's
supposed to be looking at him. So that's
why the the manager is saying, "Lock it
in." Like that's your job, dog. Look at
the catcher. He might be tapping. And
the umpire saying, "Well, in the off
case, I'm not looking. He needs to
vocalize it to to make it be known." I
think I think both people are right. If
you're challenging a call, make sure
that ump knows you're challenging a
call. UMP, come on.
Take a look. The other umpires are
looking at the pitcher. So, it's home
plate umpire's job to look at the
catcher, see if he's tapping. Second
base umpire's job to look at the pitcher
to see if the pitcher is tapping. Uh
because at one point, the manager, I
think, was like, "What about them?" And
he was like, "That's not their job." So,
I don't know. What do you guys think? I
think that you should just allow these.
That's what I think. But maybe you guys
disagree. Let me know in the comments.
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