Eugenio Suárez likely held the envy of every MLB player on Saturday.
The Cincinnati Reds third baseman put the new ABS challenge system to use in a game against the Boston Red Sox, wiping out back-to-back erroneous strike three calls from home plate umpire C.B. Bucknor, one of the least popular umps in MLB.
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With a 1-2 count and two outs against Red Sox reliever Ryan Watson, Suárez challenged a strike call that wound up being down and in, then another call on a strike that turned out to be a couple inches inside. Bucknor had made both strike calls with vigor, only to be overruled by camera and computer.
The Great American Ballpark crowd was loving it.
The two reprieves wound up not helping Suárez, who grounded out to shortstop on the next pitch. The Reds went on to win the game 5-3, though.
Those overruled strikes were two of six pitches that had Bucknor’s call overturned, out of eight challenges. This is the kind of stuff fans and players have dreamed of with the introduction of ABS.
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One area where ABS did not help, though, was an inning-ending at-bat for Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story, who struck out on a check swing call. That call also appeared wrong, though check swings are officially a judgement call by the umpires and therefore not challengeable.
Where it gets weird, however, is that Bucknor didn’t do what 99% of umpires do in that situation and appeal to the umpire with the better view to make the call. Story was irate, and Red Sox manager Alex Cora wound up getting ejected after stepping in to protect his player.
Cora’s take on Bucknor’s day, via The Athletic:
“He has one job to do, it’s (to) call balls and strikes,” said manager Alex Cora, who was ejected in the eighth. “It wasn’t his best day. That’s what the system does. It’s out there, everybody sees it, and he’ll be the first one to accept it. I saw him putting his head down after one of the challenges. And we’re all human. It’s not easy, what we do and what he does.”
The Reds’ win evens the series after Boston’s 3-0 win on Thursday, with Red Sox pitcher Connelly Early and the Reds’ Rhett Lowder slated to start for the rubber game on Sunday.
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