Yankees give umpire Jen Pawol solid reviews for her work behind the plate

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Jen Pawol plowed through a number of trailblazing milestones last year when she debuted as the first woman to umpire a Major League Baseball games during the regular season.

But Pawol, the former Hofstra softball star, is always going to experience her share of fresh challenges -- courtesy of the ABS system. And another came Sunday afternoon at Sutter Health Park, where she was behind the plate for the series finale between the Yankees and A’s.

On the 12th pitch of the game, A’s catcher Jonah Heim challenged Pawol when she called Jacob Lopez’s 1-and-2 slider to Aaron Judge a ball. The centerfield video screen immediately displayed the ABS review -- and showed the pitch had barely nicked the lower corner edge of the strike zone, by an almost microscopic margin. Still, it was strike three, and Pawol’s call was overturned.

Overall, Pawol had three of five challenges overturned, which is a fairly standard day for an MLB umpire, and a total that’s even on the lower side. For the season, she’s been behind the plate for five games -- Pawol is a full-time Triple-A umpire that’s used as a fill-in for crews at this level -- and 11 of her 22 challenges have been overturned. At 50%, Pawol still grades better than the MLB average, which is a 53% overturn rate (according to the league’s official database at baseballsavant.com).

“I think she did great,” Judge said afterward. “She’s on top of it. She’s locked in back there. A couple of times I asked her about a couple of pitches -- if they were down, or that’s the bottom [of the zone], and she was right there locked in, so that was good.”

The ABS system is nothing new for Pawol. As a minor-league umpire, she’s already had plenty of experience with the technology, as it’s been used in the minors as far back as 2019. On Sunday, aside from Judge’s strikeout, A’s leadoff hitter Carlos Cortes tested Pawol right out the gate, challenging Will Warren’s first-pitch fastball that she called a strike. The review confirmed Pawol’s call, with half the baseball inside the zone.

“I’ve been with Jen for a while, from Double-A all the way up,” said Warren, now in his second full season with the Yankees. “She’s been doing a good job, so it’s nice to see her up here.”

Pawol, 49, had a solid performance Sunday. Her overall accuracy was 93%, according to umpscorecards.com, with 159 of the game’s 171 pitches called correctly. Her “relative accuracy” was plus-0.2% above expected, meaning she had 0.3 more correct calls than the average umpire. On the season, Pawol’s accuracy is 91.4%, which is toward the lower end, but anticipated for an umpire still collecting major-league reps.

Sunday was not your average test, either. On a cloudless, 83-degree afternoon, Pawol had to endure a 43-minute top half of the third inning, when the Yankees scored 13 runs on 11 hits and sent 18 batters to the plate. She saw 75 pitches from the A’s during that half-inning alone, her only breathers coming on the multiple mound visits.

“I thought she did well,” said manager Aaron Boone, who’s notoriously tough on umpires and already has been ejected twice this season. “Felt like there were a lot of calls on the rails, close ones that both sides challenged a little bit, so she seemed good.”

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.