Mets’ Marcus Semien Burns Worst ABS Challenge of the Season on a Pitch Right Down the Middle
Marcus Semien just gave the baseball world one of the funniest moments of the 2026 season, and you do not even have to be a Mets fan to enjoy it. During Thursday’s game against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park, Semien used an Automated Ball-Strike challenge on a pitch that turned out to be the middle of the plate. Not just a strike. A strike that splits the zone.
The situation: Semien at the plate in the fourth inning, runner on second, nobody out, 0-1 count. Nationals starter Cade Cavalli throws a pitch that is called a strike. Semien taps his helmet to trigger the ABS challenge. The arena waits. The strike-zone graphic comes up. The pitch is dead red, completely engulfed in the zone, no doubt about it.
Strike two. Then strike three on the next pitch. End of at-bat.
This is one of the worst ABS challenges of the season. The pitch was not borderline. It was not even close to borderline. It was the kind of pitch you take BP swings at. Semien is a three-time All-Star and one of the smartest hitters in the league. That is what made the moment so weird. He clearly believed the call was wrong. He believed it enough to burn a precious challenge on it.
The strategic side of the equation is even worse. Semien used the challenge with a runner on second and no outs. That is not the spot where you want to burn a challenge. You save those for the late innings, leverage moments, or pitches near the corner. You do not throw it away in the fourth on a pitch belt high.
The Mets are still finding their groove this season after a heavy front-office overhaul. Semien was signed to be the steady veteran middle-infield presence next to Francisco Lindor. He has produced. He just had a wild night at the plate.
What this also does is shine a light on the ABS challenge system as a whole. MLB rolled it out for 2026 as a way to keep some of the human element while still giving hitters and pitchers a check on the umpire. The data so far is fascinating. The system is helping hitters in real ways, especially against pitchers who paint corners. But it also exposes moments like Semien’s, where a player’s perception of the zone is just off.
Every team has a player who has burned a challenge on a borderline call this season. Few have done it as publicly and on a pitch as far inside the zone as this one. The clip ricocheted around baseball Twitter within minutes. Even Mets fans had a laugh at it before the inning was over.
The Mets will be fine. Semien will be fine. He has a long history of bouncing back from rough nights at the plate. But this challenge is going on the year-end blooper reel. It might be the most confidently wrong moment of the entire 2026 ABS rollout.
Hitters get one challenge per game. Use them wisely. Marcus Semien used his and got a graphic on the scoreboard that looked like a pitching coach’s dream. He will not make that mistake again. Hopefully.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
