DETROIT — The pitch that ended the game missed the strike zone. The New York Yankees could see it. They had the technology to fix it. They no longer had the challenge to use it.
Amed Rosario made the final out Monday night on a pitch that appeared well outside. The plate umpire called it a strike. The Yankees had no way to ask for a review. Their 5-3 loss to the Detroit Tigers was sealed on a call the automated ball-strike system could have overturned in seconds.
That was the cruel twist. The bigger problem came hours earlier.
Anthony Volpe had already burned the Yankees’ challenge on a pitch that was clearly a strike. By the time the game came down to one questionable call, New York had nothing left to fight it with.
A game-ending call the Yankees could not contest
The final at-bat should have carried drama for baseball reasons. Instead it became a flashpoint in the first season of MLB’s Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System.
The pitch to Rosario sailed outside. The umpire rang him up. No tap of the helmet could save the Yankees, because the option to tap was already gone.
Under the ABS challenge format, each team starts with two challenges. A team keeps a challenge only when it wins one. Once both are lost, the human umpire’s call stands for the rest of the game.
That left the Yankees trapped at the worst possible moment. The call that ended their night was exactly the kind the system was built to correct. They had simply used up their chance to ask.
Yankees fans on Reddit turned the ending into an instant debate. The anger was not only about the final strike call. It was about how New York reached that point with no challenge left.
Volpe’s earlier challenge proved costly
The decision that shaped the ending happened far earlier in the game. Anthony Volpe asked for a review on a called strike from Tigers left-hander Framber Valdez.
The pitch appeared to catch the zone cleanly. The ABS graphic confirmed it. The Yankees lost the challenge, and Volpe was left looking overmatched by Valdez’s curveball.
That mattered later because it removed New York’s safety net. The challenge system hands hitters power they never had before. It also hands them responsibility.
A hitter must decide within seconds. He gets no help from the dugout. He has to trust his eyes and the strike zone he believes he saw. Volpe trusted his read. It was wrong.
The failed challenge did not create the missed call that ended the game. The umpire still owns that. But Volpe’s early swing and miss left the Yankees unable to correct the mistake when it mattered most.
The system was designed to reduce game-changing missed calls. It has also added a layer of strategy. Not every borderline pitch deserves a challenge. An early gamble can leave a team empty late. The system rewards confidence and punishes impulse.
For the Yankees, that lesson arrived in brutal fashion. Volpe, already under a harsh spotlight this season, made another small decision that became a large problem.
Cole stumbles in rare loss to Detroit
The challenge drama overshadowed a rough night for Gerrit Cole. The Tigers beat him for the first time in 10 years.
Cole entered with a 10-1 record and a 1.84 ERA in 14 career starts against Detroit. His only previous loss to the Tigers had come on April 14, 2016, as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The 2023 AL Cy Young Award winner allowed five runs on nine hits in 4 1/3 innings. He struck out five and fell to 2-2. Valdez outpitched him, giving up one run on four hits and two walks in six innings while striking out eight to improve to 4-5.
The Yankees scored first. Jose Caballero walked in the second inning, stole second, and came home on Ali Sanchez’s double.
Detroit answered with three runs in the third. Zack McKinstry led off with a triple and scored on Kevin McGonigle’s groundout. After a strikeout, the next four hitters reached, including RBI singles by Spencer Torkelson and Colt Keith.
McGonigle’s RBI double made it 4-1 in the fourth. Riley Greene crushed a 422-foot homer in the fifth for a 5-1 lead.
Rosario homer makes it close before the finish
The Yankees found life in the seventh. Sanchez was hit on the left wrist by a pitch and left the game. Two pitches later, Rosario drove a two-run homer to right to cut the deficit to 5-3.
The Yankees threatened again in the eighth. A pair of infield singles put two runners on with two outs and brought Jasson Dominguez up. Will Vest came out of the Detroit bullpen and struck him out.
The game also paused for seven minutes in the fourth when a camera installed in front of second base popped up through the grass. Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. tried to rebury it before the grounds crew repaired the field.
The loss was New York’s third in a row and fourth in five games. Even with the slide, and without Aaron Judge, the Yankees still hold the best record in the American League at 46-31.
The teams continue their three-game series Tuesday night. Detroit right-hander Casey Mize, 2-4 with a 2.58 ERA, faces Yankees left-hander Carlos Rodon, 3-2 with a 3.50 ERA. The questions about the final call will linger, but the harder lesson for the Yankees sits earlier in the game, when a challenge they needed at the end was already gone.
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