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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Andrew Joseph

Umpire C.B. Bucknor forgot to restart the pitch clock and lost track of the count in an awful night

CB Bucknor Rays (Organization) Kevin Cash Bo Naylor Guardians MLB

C.B. Bucknor is one of those umpires who players hate to see working behind the plate. They know to expect a wildly inconsistent strike zone, and on top of that, Bucknor struggles with even the most basic umpiring duties.

That kind of incompetence can send a game off the rails, and Saturday’s matchup between the Rays and Guardians was a prime example of that. It was an all-around terrible night for Bucknor.

In addition to calling balls and strikes, the home plate umpire is tasked with enforcing the pitch clock. But in the bottom of the fifth inning, the pitch clock didn’t restart. Of course, Bucknor didn’t notice that.

Now, instead of calling the violation on the batter Andres Gimenez who wasn’t alert to the pitcher at the 8-second mark, Bucknor called the pitch clock violation on the Rays. When Rays manager Kevin Cash tried to argue that the pitch clock wasn’t reset for that pitch, Bucknor didn’t confer with the rest of the crew. Instead he argued with Cash and ultimately ejected the Rays manager.

That lack of concentration from Bucknor would continue in the following inning when he lost track of the count and rung up Bo Naylor on a 2-1 pitch.

It was Naylor who had to inform Bucknor that the pitch was just the second strike. Like, how is this happening in a big-league game? It’s unacceptable.

Bucknor’s overall accuracy was atrocious too as he spent much of the night calling strikes on pitches around the left-handed batter’s box.

This scorecard is hilarious:

How does that even happen? We already know that MLB does almost nothing to hold umpires accountable after poor performances, but Bucknor’s night was dreadful in every facet. You can’t blame MLB fans for wanting to see something done about that.

This was how Twitter reacted

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