SEATTLE — The New York Yankees won all five of their challenges utilizing the automated ball-strike system during Monday night’s 2-1 loss to the Seattle Mariners.
Though manager Aaron Boone would have liked for his team to stay undefeated four games into the season, he was pleased with the keen eyes many of his hitters displayed against Mariners starter Luis Castillo, who tossed six scoreless innings.
“Really good job by the guys,” Boone said. “When you have that kind of success rate, it’s not going to be like that every night. But I thought every one was obviously warranted, and a couple in some key spots to give us a chance to build an inning. We just weren’t able to build much offensively tonight.”
It started in the bottom of the second when Jose Caballero correctly challenged that two called strikes by plate umpire Mike Estabrook were balls, including a 3-2 pitch from Castillo. Caballero tapped his helmet to ask for a challenge as he took his left shin guard off.
Giancarlo Stanton also successfully challenged that a 1-2 slider by Castillo was below the strike zone, and then reached on a single. One batter later, Jazz Chisholm Jr. challenged that a first-pitch slider by Castillo was out of the zone, though he later struck out.
After that at-bat, Estabrook and Boone had a verbal exchange, with Boone remaining in the dugout.
“Those are razor-thin pitches sometimes,” Boone said. “You don’t want to always have to be challenging. But good on the guys for just hammering the strike zone right now.”
The Yankees have now had an MLB-best 10 successful challenges this season and are 10-of-11 on challenges (second behind the Diamondbacks, who are 3-for-3).
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
