An umpire stared down Royals’ Salvador Perez on Monday — but in a funny way
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- The Automated Ball-Strike system produced consistent strike zones and pleased fans.
- Salvador Perez leads catchers with a 77.1% challenge success rate per ESPN.
- Perez recorded 27 successful catcher challenges, ranking third among his peers.
The Automated Ball-Strike system has been a resounding success in Major League Baseball since its introduction this season.
Players like it because the strike zone is consistent and fans love seeing the decision on the scoreboard. Even when an umpire gets a call wrong, it’s often by just a fraction of an inch — and you can’t blame them for not being perfect.
Royals catcher Salvador Perez has been one of the best at getting a call overturned. According to ESPN, Perez has the highest success rate (77.1%) among catchers who have challenged at least 30 times. And he is third among catchers in successful challenges (27).
Two came on successive pitches Monday during the Royals’ 3-1 loss to the Red Sox at Kauffman Stadium. In the top of the fifth inning, Royals starter Seth Lugo threw a strike to Boston’s Connor Wong, but home plate umpire Laz Diaz called it a ball.
Perez challenged and the call was overturned.
The same scenario played out on the very next pitch, and Diaz had to tell the 15,531 fans at the K that he was wrong and Perez was right. But only after saying “the catcher is challenging the ball call again.”
Lugo’s 0-2 pitch was a four-seam fastball out of the zone and Diaz leaned over and stared at Perez, seemingly asking if a challenge was coming.
This was a fun moment from the game.
Beyond the comical aspect of the back-to-back challenges, there was benefit to Lugo.
“It’s huge,” Lugo said. “It gives me more confidence that not only pitches work where I want to, and instead of 2-0 it was 0-2, so that changes the whole at-bat. It’s nice having him back there.”
This story was originally published May 19, 2026 at 10:28 AM.
