Brewers nearly victimized by the single worst CB Bucknor call of all time

What started as a rather uneventful Tuesday night pitching duel at American Family Field, between Brandon Woodruff of the Milwaukee Brewers and Shane McClanahan of the Tampa Bay Rays, became a rather entertaining display of missed calls and late-inning action.

McClanahan, who was making his first MLB start since 2023 after battling injuries for the past two seasons, was excellent in his return to a big-league mound -- the only blemish on his statline through the first four frames was a second-inning walk to Gary Sánchez. Things changed, however, when the Rays' southpaw returned to the mound for the fifth inning. The Brewers collected their first hit, a hard-hit single through the left side from Brandon Lockridge, and loaded the bases for Brice Turang, who faced a tough left-on-left matchup in McClanahan.

The Brewers' star second baseman came through, ripping a single to left field that scored two runs by itself. However, after getting caught in a rundown between first and second, center fielder Cedric Mullins, who joined the game of "pickle," dropped the ball when going to tag Turang, which allowed a third run to score on the play via the error. Turang was initially ruled out, but the first non-ABS challenge of the game revealed that Mullins did in fact drop the ball in the process of tagging the Brewers' second baseman rather than the fumble occurring on the transfer.

It was a game-changing review, seeing as it gave the Brewers a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth after being stumped by McClanahan through the first four innings of the game. However, important as it was, it most certainly was not the challenge that fans will remember from last night's game. That play occurred in the following inning, when umpire CB Bucknor made one of the most shocking calls in recent memory.

Brewers thankful for video review challenge system after umpire CB Bucknor nearly steals a run in Tuesday night's win

Now holding a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth, the Brewers were in search of some much-needed insurance runs. Tuesday night's designated hitter, Gary Sánchez, got the party started with his second homer of the season -- a towering fly ball to left-center field -- but that wasn't it for the Brewers in the sixth frame.

After Sánchez, Jake Bauers ripped a ball to second-baseman Ben Williamson, who made an incredible diving play to prevent it from reaching the outfield. Williamson, however, rushed the throw and overthrew first-baseman Jonathan Aranada, which seemingly allowed Bauers to reach first base on the play.

Moments later, however, first-base umpire CB Bucknor ruled that Bauers was out on the play for not touching first base, but as the replays were played on the jumbotron at Am Fam Field, it became very clear to Brewers fans that Bauers did in fact step on the base. In fact, he stepped right in the middle of it, leaving everyone wondering what exactly Bucknor was looking at. The following stills from Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel do an excellent job of capturing the play and where Bucknor's attention truly was.

The picture on the right clearly shows that Bucknor's attention was not on first base as it probably should've been -- especially if he was going to call Bauers out for missing the bag -- but rather on the overthrow made by Williamson. Thankfully, the video review system means that plays like this are corrected rather quickly, and become a hilarious gaff rather than a game-changing play. The next batter, Lockridge, doubled and drove Bauers in from first base, giving the Brewers a three-run cushion at the time.

It's been a long week for Bucknor, who had a tough showing behind the plate in the Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox' Saturday afternoon tilt. During that game, Bucknor had six pitches overturned by the new ABS challenge system, and tried ringing up Eugenio Suárez on back-to-back pitches, only for both of them to be overturned as balls.

Bucknor is set to call balls and strikes in today's series finale between the Brewers and Rays. With the flamethrowing Jacob Misiorowski on the bump for the Crew, whose electric arsenal never makes the home plate umpire's job easy, it could be a long afternoon of challenges in Milwaukee.