Twins Manager Rages at Umps After ABS Call Costs His Team an Out: ‘He’s Arguing with the Robots!’

Minnesota Twins manager Derek Shelton took his anger at baseball’s new automated ball-strike (ABS) system out on the umpires Sunday after the technology overturned a call that cost his team an out.

With the Twins trailing the Baltimore Orioles 8-6 in the bottom of the ninth with two on and one out, O’s pitcher Ryan Helsley threw what appeared to be a ball on a 3-2 count that would have loaded the bases. The pitch was ruled a ball by the home plate umpire. However, Helsley tapped his head, signaling for a review.

The ABS showed that the pitch barely touched the edge of the strike zone, and the call was overturned, resulting in the Twins’ second out.

This didn’t sit well with Shelton, who immediately ran out of the dugout to protest.

However, Shelton’s real beef was not so much with the call as with the timing of Helsley’s