After three hours of build up, the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago White Sox finally got to close out their intense showdown at Busch Stadium.
The bases were loaded with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning when the game got delayed due to inclement weather. Down 6-5, St. Louis brought catcher Iván Herrera in as a pinch hitter when the downpour finally ended, putting the 23-year-old directly into one of the biggest moments of his young career.
Herrera wasn't able to play the hero, however, as he instead got rung up to end the game.
Home plate umpire CB Bucknor saw the 1-2 changeup as a strike, even though the final pitch was several inches off the plate.
It was an anticlimactic finish, considering the tight score and prolonged hype, and fans online were not particularly satisfied with the result.
Bucknor, while not quite as infamous as Angel Hernandez, has long been heralded as one of the worst umpires in baseball. His questionable strike zone is nothing new, as Umpire Scorecards has him in the 2nd percentile in accuracy and 22nd percentile in consistency.
Of course, if Bucknor had correctly called a ball Saturday evening, Herrera still only would have had a 2-2 count. Whether or not he would have drawn a walk, walked it off or struck out anyways will remain an unknown.
The White Sox are now 4-4 in their last eight games after starting the season 3-22. They still boast the worst record in the league, though, and are on pace for just 49 wins.
The Cardinals, meanwhile, are 15-18 as their lackluster start to 2024 continued with a stroke of bad luck.
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