Baltimore Orioles at Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates edged the Baltimore Orioles 8-6 at LECOM Park in a game where umpire reviews played a pivotal role in shaping key at-bats and momentum shifts. Both teams actively challenged umpire calls, with Pittsburgh achieving a perfect 2-for-2 overturn rate, while Baltimore managed 2 successful challenges out of 3 attempts. Overall, four of the five total challenges were overturned, underscoring the impact of video review on the contest.

Most review activity clustered in the late innings, particularly in the seventh and sixth, where the count-changing overturned calls notably affected plate discipline and pitch selection. For instance, the Pirates’ Henry Davis had a called strike reversed on a 1-1 count, flipping it to 0-2 and altering the at-bat dynamic in a tight 4-3 situation. Baltimore’s Taylor Ward and Blaze Alexander both benefitted from ball calls overturned to favorable counts, with Ward’s count going from 3-3 to 4-2 and Alexander’s changing from 0-1 to 1-0, each moment occurring in innings when the game was closely contested.