Overview
- The Reds beat the Red Sox 6-5 in 11 innings on Saturday in Cincinnati when Dane Myers singled home the automatic runner after Wilyer Abreu tied it with a two-out homer in the ninth.
- Home plate umpire C.B. Bucknor had six ball-strike calls overturned by MLB’s new Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) challenge system, with the teams combining for eight challenges as Boston burned through its allotment by the third inning.
- A check-swing strike three on Trevor Story in the eighth ended a Red Sox rally and led to Alex Cora’s ejection after he argued with Bucknor.
- Sonny Gray’s Red Sox debut was bumpy with four innings, six hits, and four runs, including a missed tag that became an error, while Reds starter Brady Singer worked four innings after entering the day managing a blister.
- Elsewhere on Saturday, the Yankees completed a sweep in San Francisco while going 3-for-3 on ABS challenges that night and 5-for-6 for the series, and the Mets beat the Pirates 4-2 on Luis Robert Jr.’s three-run walk-off in the 11th as clubs quickly learn to use limited pitch challenges that are decided by tracking tech in seconds.