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Everyone was trying to figure out who might initiate the first ball-strike challenge in MLB history.
Not many guessed that it would be New York Yankees speedster Jose Caballero, but he's the answer to that trivia question after his ABS challenge on Wednesday night against the San Francisco Giants.
And in reality, no one should've been surprised.
Caballero warned us this might be coming.
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During Spring Training, Caballero challenged more of the pitches he saw than anyone else in the major leagues.
He also hit on 4-of-6 challenges in the spring.
José Caballero: 1st MLB regular season ABS challenge ever
Caballero was 1 of only 13 hitters who challenged at least 5 times at Spring Training -- and he was THE most aggressive challenger out of all of those guys pic.twitter.com/ucI6yLsqc1
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On Wednesday night, Caballero wasn't successful.
He took a pitch in near his hands, a tailing fastball from Giants starter Logan Webb, that home plate umpire Bill Miller called a strike.
Given that it came pretty close to hitting him, Caballero thought he had a case. But the pitch had nicked the inside corner, and so it remained a strike and the Yankees lost that challenge.
Turns out, Caballero's hands just end up very close to the inside corner as part of his batting stance, something he'll have to get used to as far as challenges are concerned.
But for now, he's got the baseball history. He'll always have made the first ABS challenge.
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