CB Bucknor has 6 pitches overturned via ABS, including consecutive challenges by Eugenio Suárez – The Athletic
CINCINNATI — It was Ryan Watson’s big-league debut with the Boston Red Sox, but longtime umpire CB Bucknor might have been feeling more pressure.
On a day that Bucknor, a member of a major-league umpiring crew since 1999, had eight calls challenged and a whopping six overturned, a sequence with Watson on the mound in the sixth inning was arguably the most egregious.
“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.”
With the Red Sox trailing the Cincinnati Reds 5-3 in the sixth, Watson faced slugger Eugenio Suárez with the bases loaded.
Watson, a Rule 5 draftee whom the Red Sox acquired in December, got ahead 1-2 on Suárez before firing a borderline sinker that Bucknor called strike three. Suárez challenged. Seconds later, a scoreboard replay showed the pitch was just below the zone.
Suárez returned to the box and Watson to the mound, where he fired a four-seamer. Again, Bucknor rung up Suárez.
Suárez challenged a second time as the crowd roared in excitement, awaiting the video. Moments later, the replay showed yet another pitch just outside the zone, and the crowd went wild at two straight overturned calls.
“That’s probably the loudest I’ve heard a stadium while pitching,” Watson said. “So it was intense, for sure.”
Eugenio Suarez was punched out on two consecutive pitches by C.B. Bucknor…..ABS overturned both calls. https://t.co/ybRKgblKmT pic.twitter.com/4hi3eiFrUF
— Chatterbox Sports (@CBoxSports) March 28, 2026
Watson, who’d walked off the mound twice already, thinking he’d gotten his first big-league strikeout, remained poised in the pressure-packed position.
“It was like ‘Oh man, that’s two in a row,’” Watson said. “But yeah, just tried to take a deep breath and get back in the zone.”
On the seventh pitch of the at-bat, Suárez hit a grounder to second baseman Marcelo Mayer to get Watson out of the jam.
That outcome didn’t lessen the effect of Bucknor’s rough day. The Red Sox had lost their challenges early in the game with two missed calls, one on a challenge from catcher Carlos Narváez and another from Roman Anthony, but there were at least two other calls Boston could have challenged later in the game that Bucknor seemingly missed.
In the eighth, the frustrations with Bucknor mounted as Bucknor called out Trevor Story to end the inning on a check swing with runners on. The Red Sox had pulled within 5-4, and Story had a chance to break open the game, but couldn’t ask for a review. The typically mild-mannered Story screamed at the umpire and required manager Alex Cora and third-base coach José Flores to hold him back.
Alex Cora was ejected by CB Bucknor for arguing this check swing call on Trevor Story
Bucknor did not appeal to the first base umpire on the check swing, and he has already had several calls overturned on ABS challenges in today’s game pic.twitter.com/Wh698UTgnl
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) March 28, 2026
Cora remained on the field in a shouting match with Bucknor before the home-plate umpire eventually ejected him.
The Red Sox would tie the game in the ninth inning with a Wilyer Abreu home run, but ultimately lost in the 11th on a walk-off single by Reds center fielder Dane Myers.
