Umpire CB Bucknor hates to see MLB’s new Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS) coming.
During the Red Sox’s 6-5, 11-inning loss to the Reds on Saturday in Cincinnati, Bucknor — who has been a member of a major-league umping crew since 1999 — had eight calls challenged, with six of them being overturned.
Two of the overturned calls came on back-to-back pitches, with Reds third baseman Eugenio Suarez successfully challenging consecutive strike-three calls in the sixth inning with Boston rookie Ryan Watson on the mound.
The first pitch was an inside sinker at the knees, and the second being a low and away fastball barely off the plate.
“It was like ‘Oh man, that’s two in a row,’” Watson told reporters following the game, according to The Athletic. “But yeah, just tried to take a deep breath and get back in the zone.”
In Bucknor’s defense, both pitches were close, but the ABS technology ultimately deemed both of them balls.
The Reds’ home crowd at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, Ohio, exploded at the two overturned calls.
“That’s probably the loudest I’ve heard a stadium while pitching,” Watson added. “So it was intense, for sure.”
Bucknor reached the spotlight again in the eighth inning after he called out Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story on a check swing, but the team was unable to ask for a review.
With the Red Sox down one and having a chance to break open the game, Story raged at Bucknor for the controversial call, having to be held back by Boston skipper Alex Cora and third base coach Jose Flores.
Bucknor wound up ejecting Cora after the two got into a shouting match.
“He has one job to do, it’s (to) call balls and strikes,” Cora said after Boston’s loss. “It wasn’t his best day. That’s what the system does. It’s out there, everybody sees it, and he’ll be the first one to accept it. I saw him putting his head down after one of the challenges.
“And we’re all human. It’s not easy, what we do and what he does.”
The Red Sox would tie the game in the ninth inning with a solo homer from Wilyer Abreu, but ultimately lost on a walk-off single by Reds center fielder Dane Myers in the 11th.
