Jason Benetti Stunned by Overturned Strike Call and "Yikes" Replay

Jason Benetti had the sharpest reaction of the night when an umpire’s ball call on a Bryce Elder pitch turned into a strike after the ABS challenge system stepped in during a Detroit Tigers-Atlanta Braves game. His replay call told the story in real time: "It is….. Yikes," followed by, "It is the reason for the challenge system."

Bryce Elder Pitch Reversed

Elder threw a pitch right down the middle, but home plate umpire Roberto Ortiz called it a ball. Drake Baldwin tapped his helmet right away to challenge, and the replay showed the pitch was a strike down the middle. The call was overturned, and the at-bat eventually ended in a strikeout.

The sequence was the kind of quick reversal ABS is built for. Each team gets only two challenges per game, and teams keep them if the challenge is successful, so Baldwin’s immediate decision preserved Atlanta’s chance to keep using that tool later in the game.

Ortiz Accuracy Under Scrutiny

Ortiz entered the broader discussion with recent accuracy issues already attached to his name. He missed 30 calls in a Royals-Pirates game in 2024 and finished that night with an 82.5% accuracy, then missed 25 calls during a Brewers-Padres game in September 2025.

By 2026, Ortiz’s accuracy was around 92.8%, with -5 correct calls above expectation. The league average sits between 93 and 94 percent, and umpires average about 93.5% overall accuracy, while more than half of all challenged pitches are being overturned.

Benetti on the Replay

Benetti’s reaction fit the moment because the overturned pitch changed the at-bat immediately. He was not watching a borderline call linger; he watched the system correct a pitch down the middle and turn a ball into a strike before the plate appearance could drift any further.

That same directness is why the replay stood out. Benetti had been in the broadcast booth with Steve Stone at U.S. Cellular Field on May 20, 2016, and his line on this one landed with the same quick, no-frills edge: the pitch was missed, the challenge fixed it, and the strikeout followed.