Terry Francona's confident Reds will clean up ABS miscues quickly

Cincinnati Reds hitters were 7-for-7 on ABS challenges heading into Tuesday's game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. They're now 7-for-9 having lost two brutal challenges, and Reds manager Terry Francona appears to have already addressed the issue with his team.

“This was the first time we didn’t do a very good job (with the challenge usage). We’ll tighten that up. We need to do better," Francona told Cincinnati beat reporter Charlie Goldsmith after the game.

Reds rookie Sal Stewart wasted an ABS challenge vs. Pirates

The first ABS blunder came courtesy of Reds rookie Sal Stewart. Though he's known to have a good understanding of the strike zone, Stewart challenged the first pitch of an at-bat during the bottom of the second inning with the Reds down 5-0. Replay review confirmed the call on the field, the strike was upheld, and Cincinnati lost their first challenge.

The Reds' broadcast duo of John Sadak and Barry Larkin openly debated the timing of such a challenge and questioned the legitimacy of it with Cincinnati trailing 5-0 with no runners on base. Fellow broadcaster Jim Day, who's based in the Reds dugout had his own observation, saying, "Based on the reaction down here, Sal will hear about that."

The second ABS challenge came at the request of Dane Myers in the bottom of the sixth inning. Once again, the bases were empty and the Reds were down by five runs. The video replay of Stewart's challenge revealed that the ball nicked the top of the strike zone, but the review of Myers' challenge showed that the ball was clearly in the strike zone.

The Reds were out of ABS challenges heading into the seventh inning and trailed 6-1. Though no other call throughout the remainder of the game appeared to effect the overall outcome, it could've, and the Reds would've been helpless to do anything about it.

The ABS challenge system is new — though Stewart had access to it all last season in the minors — so fans should be willing to give players a little bit of grace through the first few weeks of the 2026 season. But if these types of mistakes are being made once the calendar flips to May, Francona might have to be more direct with his messaging.