Boston Red Sox fans have had plenty to complain about during the team's 1-5 start to the season, ranging from an offense that has scored more than four runs in a game just once, a pitching staff that has yet to put the pieces together, and the same general sloppiness that has become a trademark of the team for several years now. But aside from all of that, perhaps nothing is more frustrating than their struggles with the new Automated Balls and Strikes challenge system (ABS). 

According to Baseball Savant, after the first week of games, major league players have been successful on 55% of their challenges. Those numbers can be further broken down into offensive and defensive categories, where pitchers and catchers have a 58% success rate on challenges, and batters have been successful on 52% of their challenges. 

The Baltimore Orioles have had the most success in baseball, overturning 12 of their 14 contested pitches, a success rate of 86%. While the New York Yankees are not far behind them, winning 83% of their challenges. 

The Red Sox, however, find themselves towards the bottom of baseball in their challenge success rate. The Sox rank 23rd in baseball and last in the AL East, overturning 45% of calls, winning just five of their 11 challenges. 

The problem for the Red Sox is not only their lack of success in challenging pitches, but also the situations in which they're using them. In Saturday's 3-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds, with CB Bucknor behind the plate, the Red Sox quickly burned both challenges by the third inning. Carlos Narvaez lost the first in the second inning, trying to help a struggling Sonny Gray. Then, after a successful overturn, Roman Anthony challenged a 3-1 called strike, to no avail. Teams retain challenges as long as the get the challenges right.

Anthony met with reporters after the game and took full accountability for losing the challenges. "Just not a good time to challenge... Just got too aggressive with it, can't happen," Anthony said. 

The lack of challenges allowed Bucknor to continue to miss call after call with the Red Sox at the plate, with no avenue to contest.

Then, in Houston, the Red Sox continued to use challenges in unnecessary spots. First, in the series opener, as Ranger Suarez was struggling to find command in his Red Sox debut, Carlos Narvaez challenged a ball in the bottom of the fourth, and the call stood as the ball was a tenth of an inch off the plate. 

Cora offered some explanation for the challenge, telling reporters, "We have to take the emotional part of it out of the equation. Like the other day with Narvi. He wanted that strikeout. He knows that Ranger is kinda finding it but struggling. And that’s, ‘Let me get this one.’ And that’s why he did it.”

But again in Tuesday's game two, Ceddanne Rafaela stepped to the plate in the third with one out and nobody on, and challenged the first pitch he saw, a strike on the inside corner that was upheld. 

Cora did express some frustration with the Sox' usage of their challenges before Wednesday's series finale in Houston, saying, “It’s a process. It’s a new system. Some of them have been part of it in the minor leagues. Others have been detached from the system for three years or two years. They haven’t seen it, and there’s emotions involved. That’s the reality of it. So we have to kind of like slow it down. Sometimes it’s even like, play it without thinking that there’s a system until later in the game. Just play it straightforward." 

The Red Sox will look to improve on their ABS success rate and snap their five-game losing streak on Friday when they host the San Diego Padres at 2:10 p.m. ET. 

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