NORTH PORT, Fla. -- Baseball has long been a game of inches.
Now, it seems, baseball might become a game of tenths of inches. At least it was that way on Wednesday, when the Braves beat the Pirates, 3-1, at CoolToday Park.
For reference, one-tenth of an inch is roughly the thickness of a coin.
It’s also the distance by which Pirates ace Paul Skenes’ 1-1 curveball to Matt Olson missed the zone. Home-plate umpire Chris Segal ruled the offering a strike, but when Olson tapped his helmet in earnest, MLB’s new Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System was off to the races.
Olson appeared to shrug apologetically and smile at Segal as the teams waited for the answer. Seconds later, an ABS graphic revealed the pitch had missed the outside edge by the length of an ant, a decision so close that even Olson looked surprised as he settled back into the batter’s box after throwing a wink Segal’s way.
“When the season gets rolling, that’s probably not the pitch that you're going to be challenging, but you’ve got to feel it out a bit,” Olson said. “I figured, whatever. It was a backdoor sweeper that I felt kind of held up a little bit. I just said, ‘Screw it, let’s rip it and see what happens.’”
For anyone facing the reigning NL Cy Young winner, this new "too close to be sure, so let’s get out the microscope" approach almost seems like a video game cheat code for an extra life.
The Pirates’ ace has racked up awards and compiled a microscopic league-leading 1.97 ERA last season. That doesn’t mean he’s going to coast through 2026. He’s actually all but incapable of doing so, and that’s what makes Skenes so good. For him, there’s always an attack to hone and something to be gleaned from not only every matchup but each pitch thrown within it.
So now that he’s had his first experience with just how minute the difference between a ball and a strike can be, don’t expect Skenes -- who has turned threading the needle into an artform -- to sit back and accept his new fate.
Perhaps he’d lost the battle in North Port. But there was no frustration after his outing, only a shrug and a firm resolve to eventually win the war of man vs. machine.
“Good for [Olson], I guess,” Skenes said. “I don’t know. I’ve got to throw it .1 inches lower.”
Olson’s at-bat ultimately ended in a walk, and after his close shave, Atlanta’s hitters didn’t take much bait when Skenes nibbled at the corners. He issued four free passes in his 2 1/3 innings at CoolToday Park and landed just 27 of his 53 pitches for strikes.
In total, the Braves called for four reviews against Skenes and won each one, including two consecutive batters following Olson’s win, but none was as razor-thin as the tenth of an inch that flipped a strike into a walk and perhaps affected the rhythm of Skenes’ afternoon.
In 2026, “almost” could be the difference. How does Skenes feel about that?
“Ask me again in June,” he said. “Today, that’s how it is. I’ve just got to adjust. … I think it will even out over the course of the season, but ask me in June.”