Umpire CB Bucknor's horrific bases loaded call screwed Brewers in Sunday loss to A's

After a disappointing series loss at the hands of the Cardinals, the Brewers had an opportunity to get back in the win column over this past weekend, as they took two out of three from the A's. The two clubs met up for the final time before the A's leave Oakland for good, so the series had a bit of historical significance to it as well.

Sunday's loss came in 4-3 fashion, but the majority of the blame for that falls on CB Bucknor, the controversial umpire behind the plate in the contest.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Shea Langeliers drew a walk that forced home a run, but the pitch called ball four was very clearly a strike.

This led to Oakland's first run of the game, which was followed up by a Seth Brown single, then consecutive sacrifice flies by Daz Cameron and Zack Gelof. Ultimately, this botched call by Bucknor is the reason the Brewers left Oakland winners of two out of three rather than winners via a clean sweep.

“Sometimes you’re going to be frustrated by a call here and there,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said after the game. “Maybe it was a strike, maybe it wasn’t. But the bottom line is you’ve got to limit the damage.”

Brewers starter Frankie Montas, a longtime member of the A's, had allowed the three batters ahead of Langeliers to reach base, so Bucknor can't shoulder all of the blame. However, if that at-bat had resulted in a strikeout, there wouldn't even have been an opportunity for two sacrifice flies to come in later at-bats.

Sweep or no sweep, Milwaukee enters the new week with a comfortable 10-game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Central. Taking all three in Oakland would've been a sweet way to bounce back from their last series dud, but they still own the third-best run differential (+111) in the NL, so Bucknor's blunders should be something they rebound from fairly quickly.