Aaron Boone decision, questionable ABS ruling sum up weird Yankees loss to Athletics

The Yankees will have a rubber match with the Athletics on Sunday after coming up short in Saturday night's matchup. New York began to stage a dramatic ninth-inning comeback down five runs, but Jazz Chisholm Jr. grounded out with the bases loaded to end the game.

However, if Aaron Boone had stuck to his gut with Ryan Weathers, the Yanks possibly could've at least tied the game in the top of the ninth.

Weathers has been largely excellent for the Yanks, but at times he's shown signs of wear and tear as he pitches deeper into games. The left-hander did just that against the A's, as the wheels abruptly came off in the seventh inning. Boone perhaps wanted to get ahead of it, but Weathers convinced him to stay in the game.

Two batters later, the Yankees were down two more runs. And then Jake Bird gave up another for good measure in the eighth (when doesn't he?). Instead of a 3-1 deficit, it was 6-1 with the Yankees getting their final chance.

After the game, Boone said he was "kicking himself" for not removing Weathers after he got the first two outs of the inning. Boone's logic was sound for both scenarios, but even the left-on-left matchup vs Kurtz had its warning signs. He was already 2-for-3 against Weathers on the night.

Not the end of the world. Get 'em next time. But we think most fans would agree that any inclination to remove Weathers from a game is probably a good one given he could record his career high for innings pitched by the end of June.

What in the world was this ABS call during Yankees vs Athletics on May 30?

This content also featured some light ABS controversy. In the bottom of the fourth inning with Tyler Soderstrom leading off, Weathers fell behind 2-0 in the count. His next pitch, a slider, was called for a strike on the lower outside part of the plate. Soderstrom challenged, and it appeared he was correct.

However, there might've been something wrong with the ABS? The home plate umpire got on his headset, but there was no replay on the video board at the stadium or on TV. Typically, these have been instantaneous for everybody to see.

After the review took a few moments, the pitch was upheld as a strike despite clear evidence that it was not. At that point, it seemed as if the call on the field had to stand without the proper replay available? That's all we can guess.

We'll call it a glitch in the system, which is essentially the status quo with how human umpires operate anyway. That's how it's been forever, so it's not like this is a different experience for fans.

We will say, though, if the technology is fallible in a manner like this, then a full transition to ABS might need a longer runway.

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