Repeated ABS Challenges by Salvador Perez Led to Terrific Umpiring Moment From Laz Diaz

Umpire stares down catcher in funny interaction behind the plate.

Laz Diaz stares down Salvador Perez during challenge-filled at-bat on Monday night. | Foul Territory on X

The implementation of the ABS challenge system in Major League Baseball has provided the opportunity for Royals catcher Salvador Perez to display yet another elite skill. Through this point of the season, Perez has been successful on 27 of his 35 challenges behind the plate, which makes him the third best signal-caller in baseball. Which sort of makes sense considering how many pitches the 36-year-old has received over the years.

Perez, who is known to have some fun back there, was positioned in front of home plate umpire Laz Diaz on Monday night as Kansas City hosted the Red Sox. And in the top of the fifth, things got very interesting.

With Seth Lugo on the mound and Connor Wong at the plate, Perez correctly second-guessed two straight offerings that were originally ruled balls by Diaz. When the third pitch of the at-bat, a fastball several inches high, flew in it allowed Diaz a moment to be the funny guy by comically staring down Perez to see if a third straight challenge was in the works.

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— Foul Territory (@bsbls885) May 19, 2026

Just tremendous stuff there. A rare bit of warranted and hopefully appreciated physical humor from an umpire. It's nice to see everyone keep their sense of humor, especially the person having their work meticulously and repeatedly fact-checked.

Boston would go on to earn a 3–1 victory. Perez got to build on his impressive challenge stats. And Diaz slept with the satisfaction of knowing that there's a machine to tell him when a ball touches the zone by the width of a seam.

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