CB Bucknor\u2019s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week worsened Wednesday when the home-plate umpire left the Milwaukee Brewers-Tampa Bay Rays game after taking a foul ball off his face mask.<\/p>\n
Bucknor was behind the plate in the second inning when Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski delivered a 100.2 mph fastball, and Rays catcher Nick Fortes fouled it back. The ball caught Bucknor flush in the mask. He fell to his hands and knees in the dirt. After athletic trainers attended to Bucknor, he got to his feet and headed up the ramp to the umpires\u2019 room at American Family Field in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n
It was a sudden ending to a potential bounce-back game for Bucknor, the embattled umpire who in the past week became the early-season face of MLB\u2019s Automated Ball-Strike challenge system. Bucknor, who has clashed with numerous players and managers over ball\/strike calls since he started umpiring MLB games in 1999, now must contend with the sport\u2019s new challenge system. So far, it\u2019s been a difficult adjustment.<\/p>\n
Bucknor\u2019s stretch in the spotlight began Saturday when he was the home-plate umpire in Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox challenged eight of Bucknor\u2019s ball\/strike calls, and six were overturned. Back-to-back successful challenges by Reds slugger Eugenio Su\u00e1rez prompted roars from the home crowd. Later in the game, Bucknor called the Red Sox\u2019s Trevor Story out on a check swing. The Red Sox were out of challenges, so Story settled for shouting at the home-plate umpire. Bucknor permitted Story to stay in the game but ejected Red Sox manager Alex Cora for arguing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has one job to do, it\u2019s (to) call balls and strikes,\u201d Cora said after the Red Sox\u2019s 6-5, 11-inning loss to the Reds. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t his best day. That\u2019s what the system does. It\u2019s out there, everybody sees it, and he\u2019ll be the first one to accept it. I saw him putting his head down after one of the challenges. And we\u2019re all human. It\u2019s not easy, what we do and what he does.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Tuesday in Milwaukee, Bucknor was umpiring first base. In the sixth inning, the Brewers\u2019 Jake Bauers lined a ball off the glove of Tampa Bay Rays second baseman Ben Williamson. Williamson recovered quickly but threw wildly to first base. After Bauers passed first base, the Rays\u2019 Jonathan Aranda tagged him, and Bucknor called the runner out, ruling Bauers had missed the bag.<\/p>\n
Bauers never made a move toward second base. Yet, he was still tagged by Aranda and called out because Bucknor mistakenly believed that Bauers never touched the first-base bag.<\/p>\n
On the Brewers TV broadcast, Jeff Levering declared it \u201ca horrendous call.\u201d Bucknor appeared to be watching the errant throw, not Bauers\u2019 right foot strike (or miss) the base.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is CB Bucknor looking?\u201d Levering said.<\/p>\n
The Brewers challenged Bucknor\u2019s call, and it was overturned. Bauers stole second and scored on Brandon Lockridge\u2019s double. Milwaukee won, 6-2.<\/p>\n