It took all of two pitches for home plate umpire CB Bucknor to set an ugly tone for himself on Wednesday night when the Dodgers were trying to prevent a series sweep at the hands of the Angels. With Shohei Ohtani batting and ahead in the count 2-0, Bucknor called a changeup inches below the zone as a strike, and then immediately called a sinker in — again, not remotely hittable — strike two. Ohtani had to call a timeout to process that one.
He eventually hit a leadoff triple so, fine, but Bucknor continued to miss three more calls in the top of the first, including one that struck out Alex Freeland with two men on.