John Smoltz went on FOX and said William Contreras had no business challenging a ball-strike call with a 2-0 lead in Game 3 of the 2026 World Series. What happened next didn’t help his case: Contreras won all four challenges he made that night — including the one that triggered the criticism, where the ball was three inches inside the strike zone. In baseball, being right is always the right call, no matter what the scoreboard says.
What Happened in the Third Inning of Game 3
It was the bottom of the third at Tropicana Field. The Milwaukee Brewers led the Tampa Bay Rays 2-0 when Contreras, behind the plate, activated the ABS challenge system — MLB’s new ball-strike review mechanism introduced in the 2026 regular season. He tapped his cap in under two seconds, the umpire checked Hawk-Eye, and the call came back: strike, not a ball. The pitch had crossed the zone.
Smoltz didn’t wait for the result before weighing in. The Hall of Fame starter argued that in a «low-stress» situation with that kind of lead, burning a challenge wasn’t worth it. The problem: it wasn’t a gamble. The ball was three inches inside and Contreras knew it.
Why the Numbers Make Smoltz’s Argument Fall Apart
Contreras doesn’t challenge on instinct or emotion. In the 2026 regular season, he finished with 105 successful challenges in 185 attempts — a 56.8% success rate, one of the best marks among catchers in the league. In the NLCS against the Dodgers, he went 8-for-11. And in Game 3 of the World Series, he was perfect: four challenges, four correct calls.
That’s exactly what makes the «low-stress situation» argument collapse. The ABS system doesn’t care how big your lead is — it only asks whether the pitch crossed the zone. When a catcher is right more than 56% of the time during the regular season and arrives at the postseason 15-for-26, every challenge he makes has a foundation behind it. A 2-0 lead in the World Series doesn’t turn a missed call into something worth letting slide.
Contreras also heads into Game 4 hitting .538 with 3 RBI in the Series — a legitimate MVP candidate. It wasn’t just a good night behind the plate; everything he touched worked.
Smoltz’s Correction That Made Things Worse
The next day on MLB Network, Smoltz tried to walk back his comments. He praised Contreras in general terms, but in trying to clarify what scenario he had in mind, he made an error that deepened the criticism: he said his argument was meant for a hypothetical 10-0 score, not the actual 2-0 game situation in Game 3. The problem is that the challenge happened at 2-0 — that was the exact moment that sparked the whole debate. Fans on social media were quick to point it out.
The Jomboy Media clip capturing the original moment racked up 295,000 impressions, and Smoltz’s «correction» set off a second wave of commentary. Milwaukee went on to win Game 3 by a score of 10-1, with an eight-run fifth inning, and now heads into Game 4 at Tropicana Field with a chance to win the franchise’s first World Series title.
Meanwhile, Contreras is still behind the plate, tapping his cap every time he knows he’s right. So far, he almost always is.
