Red Sox Pitcher Nick Pivetta Blasts Robot Umps On Rehab Start

Boston Red Sox pitcher Nick Pivetta came away from his rehab start with Triple-A Worcester on Thursday night with some positives.

There was also one big negative from Pivetta’s perspective.

Pivetta experienced for the first time in his career the automated ball-strike system, which is implemented at the Triple-A level and uses a tracking system to decipher balls and strikes before signaling the correct call to the home plate umpire through an earpiece.

It’s safe to say Pivetta isn’t a fan of the system.

“I hate it. It’s terrible,” Pivetta told reporters, per the Worcester Telegram’s Tommy Cassell. “Hopefully it never comes to baseball.”

Pivetta’s usually strong command of his pitches — he boasts a 13-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in the big leagues this season — wasn’t there through three-plus innings. That could be due to rust since he hadn’t pitched in a game since April 3 or getting comfortable with the ABS system.

The 31-year-old threw 36 of his 62 pitches for strikes while issuing four walks. He surrendered four free passes in a game only once last season.

“I think the challenge system is fine, but the strike zone is just weird,” Pivetta said. “Doesn’t match baseball.”

The good news for Pivetta is he might not have to deal with the ABS system again. Pivetta’s outing Thursday could be his only rehab start as Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters that the right-hander could possibly rejoin Boston when it takes on the Atlanta Braves early next week.