Overview
- Working first base Tuesday in Milwaukee, Bucknor called Jake Bauers out for missing first, but replay showed a clear touch and the Brewers won 6-2.
- The call would have ended the sixth inning, yet after the overturn Bauers stole second and scored on Brandon Lockridge’s double.
- The episode followed Saturday’s Reds–Red Sox game in which the new Automated Ball-Strike challenge system overturned six of Bucknor’s pitch calls, an unusually high total for one game.
- Managers Kevin Cash and Pat Murphy were caught smiling after the review, Brewers announcers called the ruling “horrendous,” and ex-Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain wrote that “something has to be done.”
- MLB’s ABS challenge lets hitters contest balls and strikes for rapid rulings, and paired with video replay it is turning umpire accuracy into a public, running tally that can shape strategy and scrutiny.