Arizona Diamondbacks Gameday Thread, #57: 5/30 @ Mariners

Today’s Lineups

DIAMONDBACKS	MARINERS
Ketel Marte – 2B	J.P. Crawford – SS
Corbin Carroll – RF	Julio Rodriguez – CF
Geraldo Perdomo – SS	Josh Naylor – 1B
Nolan Arenado – 3B	Randy Arozarena – LF
Gabriel Moreno – C	Luke Raley – RF
Ryan Waldschmidt – CF	Cole Young – 2B
Ildemaro Vargas – 1B	Dominic Canzone – DH
Adrian Del Castillo – DH	Mitch Garver – C
Tommy Troy – LF	Colt Emerson – 3B

Ryne Nelson – RHP	Bryan Woo – RHP

We’re now two months into ABS, and it has largely become part and parcel of the landscape. We’ve now got enough data to see some interesting trends. For example, this confirms what we suspected: that catchers (and pitchers, though those are a tiny fraction – no AZ pitcher has yet challenged) are better at it than hitters. 58 percent of fielding team challenges have been successful, but for batters, the number drops to 47 percent. The D-backs reflect this too, but have actually been better on defense, where they’re challenging successfully at an impressive 65% rate. But it’s been a while: Arizona haven’t put in a successful defensive claim since May 21, losing their last three in a row.

At the dish, Arizona have gone 19-21, a 48% rate that’s basically right in line with league average. The hitter most likely to be tapping his helmet for the D-backs is perhaps unsurprising: it’s catcher Gabriel Moreno, who has challenged seven pitches. However, he’s not quite as good there as when wearing the mask, having gone 4-3. And three of the four were called strikes which actually were out of the zone by more than two inches, including the most egregious overturned strike yet of 2026 for an Arizona hitter, more than three inches out. Corbin Carroll has only challenged twice, but has won both of them.

On the other hand, D-backs have challenged and lost five pitches which were inside the strike zone by more than two inches. The worst one there was this challenge by Lourdes Gurriel, which was again, over three inches from being a ball. Considering Gurriel wasn’t even facing the plate when the ball reached the catcher… Yeah. What’s interesting is, overall, the ratio of challenges has remained fairly static at around four percent since the beginning of the season. I might have expected either umpires to get more used to calling the “right” zone, or players to get better at challenges. Perhaps those two things cancel each other out!