Umpire CB Bucknor faced some backlash on Tuesday night after making a horrendous call to give the Atlanta Braves a second chance against the Washington Nationals.
Chase d’Arnaud was up for the Braves with the bases loaded and two outs in the 9th, with his team trailing 3-1. Facing a 1-2 count, d’Arnaud swung and clearly missed a pitch that bounced in the dirt.
Possibly because the ball had bounced in the dirt, Bucknor called that a foul ball, giving d’Arnaud a second chance. D’Arnaud struck out a second time, ending the game. There was a big mess because Bucknor originally called it foul, then seemed to indicate the game was over, then called it a foul ball again.
Afterwards Nats outfielder Jayson Werth called on MLB to do something about Bucknor:
Werth had words for Bucknor after the game. He probably was not happy about the way Bucknor called this at-bat for him:
MASN analyst Ray Knight was critical of Bucknor:
Max Scherzer’s wife wanted Bucknor to have to answer for his poor calls:
This sort of thing is nothing new for Bucknor, who is consistently ranked by players as one of the worst umps in the game. One of his biggest blunders was this one from 2013. MLB needs to address this.
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