It could be argued that the Automated Ball-Strike system has been the MVP of Major League Baseball through the season's first 2 1/2 weeks, creating a game-within-the-game that's producing winners, losers and some dramatic moments.
There appears to be at least one tradeoff.
The robot umpires could be one of the factors making games a little longer this spring, with the time of a nine-inning game creeping upward to 2 hours, 42 minutes through Saturday, according to baseball-reference.com. That's up from 2:38 last season and 2:36 in 2024.
The slightly longer games make sense. Even though an ABS challenge usually takes less than 15 seconds, the mini delays in the game can add up if several pitches are contested.
One of MLB's big wins over the past decade is a rules package that debuted in 2023, which included a pitch clock that dramatically shortened games by roughly 25 minutes. Though there were scattered complaints about the changes, they've been widely viewed as a success.
The ABS system might be making a small dent in that progress, but game times are still considerable shorter than they were in the pre-pitch clock era. A nine-inning game lasted an average of 3:10 in 2021 — an all-time high.
Two-time All-Star Corbin Carroll is off to a good start again this season with a .327 batting average and 1.067 OPS, and the young star has developed a signature play that's increasingly rare in today's game.
The triple.
The 25-year-old speedster leads the majors with three triples in just 14 games. He's paced the big leagues in triples over the past two seasons with 17 of in 2025 and 14 in 2024.
The D-backs' home of Chase Field has a been a perfect fit for Carroll, featuring a deep power alley in right-center that forces outfielders to cover a lot of ground while he motors around the bases.
Carroll is already sixth among active MLB players with 46 triples.
Manager Rob Thomson realizes how fortunate the Philadelphia Phillies are to already have their bullpen lining up so smoothly in April, with depth and matchups and shutdown pitching, too.
That includes reliable closer Jhoan Duran handling ninth-inning duties. He already has five saves and a 1.35 ERA
The Philadelphia relievers surrendered only one earned run during the club’s recent six-game trip, spanning 18 innings by the bullpen for a 0.50 ERA and .129 opponent batting average (8 for 62).
Rookie top prospect Andrew Painter appreciates all of the relievers backing him. Painter gave up four runs in four innings in a game last week against the Giants, but the bullpen pitched five scoreless innings that gave the Phillies time to rally for a 6-4 win.
“They stepped up, to go out there and throw up five more zeros after that,” Painter said. “Offense stepped up, I’m super happy that everyone could pick me up.”
Carroll is sixth among active MLB players in triples. Who are the top five?
After a disappointing 2025 season, St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Jordan Walker is showing why he's considered one of the game's top young players. The 23-year-old has already hit seven homers this season, including six over the past eight games.
Walker is batting .327 with a 1.138 OPS through 15 games, leading a Cardinals team that's off to a solid 8-7 start.
Mike Trout 55, Starling Marte 55, Andrew McCutchen 50, Trea Turner 48, Amed Rosario 47.
AP Baseball Writer Janie McCauley contributed to this report.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
St. Louis Cardinals Jordan Walker celebrates a home run against the Washington Nationals in the fifth inning during a baseball game, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
Arizona Diamondbacks' Corbin Carroll (7) loses his helmet as he runs to third base on a triple during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
Minnesota Twins' Josh Bell, right, signals for an ABS challenge on a called third strike, which was upheld, during the first inning of baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)
Ships have stopped moving through the Strait of Hormuz, an intelligence firm said, and oil prices resumed their climb Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump announced on social media that the United States would blockade the waterway.
U.S. Central Command later said the blockade would involve all vessels entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, and that it would still allow ships traveling between non-Iranian ports to transit the strait, a step down from the president’s earlier threat to blockade the entire strait.
Trump confirmed the timing and some details of the CENTCOM statement in a post on his social media site early Monday.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said the strait remained under Iran’s “full control” and was open for non-military vessels, but military ones would get a “forceful response,” two semiofficial Iranian news agencies reported.
The moves came after marathon U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks in Pakistan ended without an agreement, setting the stage for a showdown. Iranian parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who led Iran’s side in the talks, addressed Trump in a statement on his return to Iran: “If you fight, we will fight.”
The war, which is entering its seventh week, has killed thousands of people and shaken global markets.
Here is the latest:
A labor union said Monday that thousands of crew members stuck on vessels in and around the Strait of Hormuz are running short on basics and growing increasingly desperate.
Milind Kandalgaonkar, general secretary of the National Union of Seafarers of India, said that nearly 20,000 Indian crew members were stranded in the region.
“Many of these seafarers are reportedly facing acute shortages of food, potable water, and essential medical supplies,” he wrote in a letter to India’s national shipping board. He urged authorities to ensure supplies can reach the vessels, protect seafarers’ welfare and prepare evacuation plans if needed.
Tanker owners say the ceasefire has done little to ease conditions for mariners in the strait, where crews report dwindling food and fresh water.
Israel’s military said Monday said its troops have surrounded what they say is Hezbollah military infrastructure and have started ground operations
in the strategic southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil and its surrounding areas, killing over 100 Hezbollah fighters.
Hezbollah did not immediately publicly announce anyone killed among their ranks, and Israel did not immediately acknowledge any fatalities among their forces. Hezbollah has not commented on the developments.
On Sunday Hezbollah claimed at least five attacks on Israeli troops in the town and its outskirts with rockets, artillery, and exploding drones. According to the group’s statements, the Israeli troops were positioned near a school, a hospital, and juncture that surrounds the heart of Bint Jbeil. The Israeli military said it attacked Hezbollah forces.
The town overlooks the UN-mandated Blue Line that divides Israel and Lebanon, just over 2 miles away, making it a strategic point for the Iran-backed group.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has criticized the peace talks between the U.S. and Iran in Pakistan last week as not well prepared.
“I was not surprised by the decision to break off the talks in Islamabad,” he told reporters in Berlin on Monday.
“From the very beginning, I didn’t get the impression that they were really well prepared,” the chancellor said without further elaborating who exactly he was referring to with this criticism.
The U.S. blockade of Iranian ports could prompt the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen to disrupt transit through Bab el-Mandeb Strait, an analyst has warned.
“If the U.S. moves to impose a blockade on Iranian ports and Iran starts feeling the pain, the Houthis are very likely to escalate in the Bab el-Mandeb,” said Ahmed Nagi, a senior analyst for Yemen at the International Crisis Group think-tank.
The closure of Bab el-Mandeb would add “another layer” of pressure on the global shipping industry, he said.
The offices of the Lebanese Red Cross in Tyre were hit by a drone strike on Monday, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.
The strike in the southern coastal city killed a wounded person being transported and damaged Red Cross vehicles. The Israeli military did not immediately reply to inquires from The Associated Press.
The funeral was being held on Monday for a Lebanese Red Cross volunteer killed on Sunday in an Israeli strike that hit his team while on a mission in Beit Yahoun.
The Lebanese Red Cross operates in war-torn southern Lebanon in coordination with the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, UNIFIL, and the Lebanese military.
Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi held telephone talks Monday with her Pakistani counterpart, Shehbaz Sharif, during which she expressed support for his mediation efforts for hosting U.S.-Iran talks in Islamabad.
Takaichi said she reiterated Japan’s position that what is most important is to promptly reach a final agreement and to de-escalate the situation through talks to ensure safe passages through the Strait of Hormuz.
Sharif said Pakistan hopes to cooperate with Japan in the effort, Takaichi said.
France and the U.K. will organize a conference with partners ready to contribute to a peaceful multinational mission to help restore navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, President Emmanuel Macron said.
In a post on X, Macron stressed “the need to restore free and unimpeded navigation through the Strait of Hormuz as quickly as possible.” He called for a “peaceful multinational mission,” adding: “This strictly defensive mission, separate from the warring parties to the conflict, is intended to be deployed as soon as circumstances permit.”
France and the U.K. have in recent years been working to set up an operation that would allow ships to cross the Strait of Hormuz once the fighting ends.
The roughly 17-cent (20 U.S. cent) per-liter reduction is intended to help cushion the impact of high energy prices linked to the Iran war.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday the measure “will very quickly improve the situation for drivers and businesses across the country, and especially for those who spend a great deal of time on the road, primarily for work-related reasons.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer says Britain will not be part of a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports in response to the closing of the Strait of Hormuz. Starmer told BBC radio on Monday that “we’re not supporting the blockade” and “we’re not getting dragged into the war.”
He said U.K. efforts remain focused on reopening the key shipping route, whose closure has sent prices for oil and other commodities soaring.
Starmer spoke after U.S. President Donald Trump said Britain would send minesweepers to the strait.
Britain says it might help with mine-clearing in the waterway, but only after the fighting stops. Starmer said all Britain’s military capability is focused on getting the strait “fully open.” The U.K. is working with dozens of other countries on plans to restore security to shipping through the key oil route after the conflict.
Japan has expressed support for the U.S.-Iran talks held in Pakistan over the weekend and that it continues to closely watch further development in hopes of an early de-escalation.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters Monday that his government believes that the most important thing is actually to achieve de-escalation, including ensuring the safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
“We hope a final agreement will be reached swiftly through diplomatic efforts,” Kihara said.
Kihara, asked if Japan is considering sending Japanese warships to join minesweeping effort in the key waterway, said nothing has been decided.
Southeast Asian countries urged the United States and Iran Monday to keep going with peace negotiations, enforce a ceasefire and restore the safe passage of ships, seafarers and aircraft in the Strait of Hormuz.
The foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations made the urgent plea as they held an emergency video conference, the second in recent weeks, to assess the impact of the war in the Middle East, including soaring fuel prices, and how they could cooperate in the face of global crises.
The 11-nation bloc reminded “the obligations of all states to resolve their differences through peaceful means, to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations, to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure in armed conflicts.”
It called “for the full and effective implementation of the ceasefire, aimed at preventing further suffering and loss of lives, ensuring maritime security and freedom of navigation and overflight.”
Iran threatened ports in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman after the U.S. announced a blockade on Iran’s ports and coastline.
“Security in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman is either for everyone or for NO ONE,” according to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, IRIB. “NO PORT in the region will be safe,” the Iranian military said.
Oil prices started climbing and Asian markets mostly declined Monday as the U.S. military prepared to blockade ships bound for or coming from Iranian ports and transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
On Monday, benchmark U.S. crude jumped $6.71 or nearly 7% to $103.28 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose $6.20, or 6.5%, to $101.40 a barrel.
Oil prices have been rising as shipping through the strait has essentially stalled since late February. Brent crude oil, the international standard, has gone from roughly $70 per barrel before the war in late February to more than $119 at times.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.7% to finish at 56,502.77. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.4% to 8,926.00. South Korea’s Kospi dipped 0.9% to 5,808.62. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 1.1% to 25,613.85, while the Shanghai Composite was little changed, inching up less than 0.1% to 3,988.56.
Iraq’s oil exports plunged in March to 18.6 million barrels, down from 99.87 million in February due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, according to official figures released Monday.
The state-run Organization for Marketing of Oil said revenues also have fallen to just $1.95 billion, down from over $6.81 billion.
The figures showed that exports from the Kurdistan Region through Turkey’s Ceyhan port also dropped to 1.27 million barrels, down from 5.55 million barrels in February.
Women walk past a banner depicting the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the U.S. and Israel strikes on Feb. 28, in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A man sits on a bench in a memorial, set for the school children who were killed during a strike on a school in southern town of Minab on Feb. 28, in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, April 12, 2026, after he returned from Miami. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Mourners react during the funeral of 13 state security officers killed the previous day in an Israeli strike in Lebanon's coastal city of Sidon, Saturday, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
