Three strikes and you’re out – or so they say.
Major League Baseball umpires have been in the spotlight early this season — mostly for the wrong reasons. With the new Automated Balls and Strikes (ABS) system now in use — allowing players to challenge calls on individual pitches — umps have faced increased scrutiny with their errors being called out.
However, while ABS has provided some much-needed resolution to the typical missed ball-and-strike arguments of the past, Tuesday night provided two new instances of umpiring atrocities – including one that went unnoticed by all involved.
Home plate umpire forgets ball-strike count
Somehow, umpire Mark Wegner forgot the count during an at-bat between Houston’s Cam Smith and Red Sox pitcher Brayan Bello, leading to Smith drawing a walk after he should have been struck out on three pitches.
During the bottom of the fifth inning, Smith came to the plate for the Astros with runners on first and third against the Red Sox starter.
After Smith swung and missed the first pitch, he did so again on the second offering while the runner on first, former Blue Jay Joey Loperfido, took off for second. The throw from the catcher got away from the second baseman, allowing the runner on third to head home and score while Loperfido went to third.
After the chaos, Smith swung and missed the next pitch from Bello — his third swinging strike of the the at-bat — but didn’t get called for strikeout.
The at-bat continued — with no protests from either side — until Smith finally walked on the 11th pitch he faced.
After the at-bat, Boston manager Alex Cora lifted Bello for reliever Ryan Watson, who retired the next batter to end the inning and mitigate any damage the blown call might have caused.
After the game, Wegner owned up to his mistake, saying he “didn’t know what happened.”
“I just watched the video. I didn’t know what happened until I came in here and apparently, I somehow didn’t count the second swinging one because I said the count was 1-2. It was actually strike three,” Wegner told a pool reporter. “Had anybody caught it, we can always go and call replay and check the count. I’ve never done that before.
“I’m not happy about it. Just made a mistake.”
CB Bucknor wrongly says runner missed first base
Wegner’s brain fart wasn’t the only big umpiring gaffe on Tuesday, with CB Bucknor once again in the spotlight for an awful missed call.
While Bucknor has been lambasted by fans for the amount of calls he has seen overturned by ABS, this play occurred at first base.
During a game between the Rays and Brewers, Bucknor ruled that Milwaukee’s Jake Bauers missed touching the base after reaching first on a throwing error by Tampa Bay, who then tagged out the batter.
Milwaukee immediately challenged the ruling and it was swiftly overturned, with replays showing that Bucknor appeared to not even having been looking at the base when the play occurred.
After the home plate umpire announced the correct ruling on the field, managers from both teams were caught looking across the diamond from each other and sharing a laugh.
The game’s commentators also were befuddled by Bucknor’s call.
“Where is CB Bucknor looking?” one broadcaster asked before exclaiming, “He’s not even looking at the play!”
The two announcers could only joke about the situation, before one quipped: “I’m really excited for him to have the plate tomorrow.”