As Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora pointed out, Saturday wasn't veteran umpire C.B. Bucknor's best day.
Cora was ejected during Boston's 6-5 11-inning defeat to the Cincinnati Reds Saturday after arguing a call with Bucknor in the eighth inning.
The Red Sox manager had reason to be frustrated with Bucknor, however, as, of the eight ABS challenges that were issued in the game, six were overturned, including a sequence that saw Reds slugger Eugenio Suarez get rung up twice in a row by Bucknor, only to have both called strikeouts overturned by ABS.
In total, Reds players went 5-for-5 on ABS challenges against Bucknor.
Though these overturned calls were largely against his team, Cora made his frustration known, along with a little empathy, with Bucknor Saturday.
"He has one job to do, it’s (to) call balls and strikes,” Cora told The Athletic after the game Saturday. “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."
Cora was ejected for arguing a check swing by Trevor Story in the eighth that was called a strike by Bucknor.
According to Umpire tracking site Umpire Scorecard, Bucknor sported the fifth lowest call accuracy during the 2025 regular season, getting 92.81 per cent of his calls correct. Edwin Jimenez was MLB's most accurate umpire last season, making 96.18 per cent of his calls.
Bucknor has been a member of an MLB umpiring crew since 1999.
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