Blue Notes · Umpire Grade2026-07-19
PIT @ CLE
Home plate: Alex MacKay
“The zone had wings tonight.”
Umpire Grade
86.8% accurate
Run Favor
runs, PIT
ABS Overturns
of 6 reviewed
What this shows — how Alex MacKay called the 129 pitches that were taken (no swing), graded against the tracked rulebook strike zone. He got 112 right. Below, only his misses are plotted, alongside every pitch the ABS (Automated Ball-Strike System) reviewed on a challenge.
The zone, as he called it
strike called ballball called strikeABS overturnedABS upheld
The calls that moved the game
- 1-0.28▲1 · 1-2 ball called strike· challenged ✓
Esmerlyn Valdez vs Joey Cantillo - 2-0.28▼1 · 1-2 ball called strike
Travis Bazzana vs Paul Skenes - 3-0.23▲9 · 0-2 ball called strike
Bryan Reynolds vs Will Dion
Run impact from the count run-value table: a missed strike three is worth far more than one on 3-0.
ABS — the Automated Ball-Strike System
6 pitches went to the robots · 4 overturned (ump overruled) · 2 upheld (ump confirmed). This is the ABS system’s own measurement — Hawk-Eye optical ball-tracking, not our model.
- 1Esmerlyn Valdez — ump said strike, robot ruled ball: overturned.
- 2Patrick Bailey — ump said ball, robot ruled strike: overturned.
- 3Patrick Bailey — ump said ball, robot ruled strike: overturned.
- 4Patrick Bailey — ump said ball, robot ruled ball: upheld.
- 5Henry Davis — ump said ball, robot ruled strike: overturned.
- 6Henry Davis — ump said ball, robot ruled ball: upheld.
Our tracked-rulebook zone matched the ABS ruling on 5 of 6 — a zone-definition gap (ABS grades a standardized, height-based zone), not our error.