C.B. Bucknor's Early Season Struggles Continue After Another Glaring Miss
Umpire C.B. Bucknor is having the kind of start to the season that makes you wonder what's going on behind the plate. On Tuesday, he was working first base for the Milwaukee Brewers' 6-2 win over Tampa Bay when he made a call so obviously wrong that even the managers couldn't help but smile about it afterward.
With Milwaukee up 4-2 in the sixth inning, Jake Bauers ripped an infield single. Here's the problem: Bucknor called him out, saying he never touched first base. The replay showed something completely different. Bauers clearly touched the top of the bag, right across the middle. No ambiguity. No debate. Just a straight-up missed call.
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Bauers wasn't about to make a huge deal out of it, even though he probably had every right to. "I don't know what happened," Bauers said. "I'm just thankful to get on base and thankful to come around and score." The guy played it cool, but you could read between the lines.
The best part? After the replay showed how badly Bucknor blew it, television cameras caught Brewers manager Pat Murphy and Rays skipper Kevin Cash just grinning at each other. When Murphy was asked about those grins, he kept it diplomatic. "Kevin and I are friends," Murphy explained. "We hadn't had a chance to talk to each other before the game, so we just smiled back at each other."
Bucknor's Rough Weekend Already Set the Tone
This miss didn't happen in a vacuum. Bucknor had the poorest results among MLB umpires in baseball's new automated ball-strike system last weekend. During Cincinnati's 6-5, 11-inning win over Boston on Saturday, six of eight challenges of his calls were successful. All six overturned calls involved strikes being changed to balls. The two he got right? One ball and one strike.
That's a rough look early on. When you're leading the league in getting overturned, something needs to change. Bauers, for his part, acknowledged the silver lining. "Yeah, grateful for that," he said with a laugh when asked if he appreciated MLB having replay in place. At least one thing went right for him on the day.
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