CB Bucknor makes Walker Buehler get Julio Rodriguez out twice in one at bat, a breakdown
What Happened
In the top of the fourth inning, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler is locked in, efficiently working through the Seattle Mariners' lineup. Buehler starts off Mariners star Julio Rodríguez with a fastball and a nasty curveball, quickly getting ahead in the count 0-2. Buehler then tries to put Rodríguez away with another curveball, but it misses the zone. The count is now 1-2 as Buehler mixes in a cutter and another curve, but Rodríguez lays off both for a full count. On the 3-2 pitch, Buehler goes back to his curveball and Rodríguez swings through it, striking out. Buehler appears to have Rodríguez's number, pumping his fist as he walks around the mound. However, home plate umpire CB Bucknor rules that Rodríguez did not go around on the curveball, much to Buehler's dismay. The two engage in a heated discussion, with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts quickly coming out to defend his pitcher. Undeterred, Buehler returns to the mound and works Rodríguez again. He tries the same curveball-sinker sequence, but Rodríguez lays off the pitches. On a 3-2 count, Buehler goes back to his curveball, the pitch he thought struck Rodríguez out earlier, but Bucknor again rules no swing. Rodríguez then fouls off Buehler's next offering, extending the at-bat. Buehler continues to challenge Rodríguez with his array of pitches, but the young slugger is unfazed, refusing to chase the off-speed offerings. Finally, on the 3-2 pitch, Buehler goes back to his curveball, and this time Rodríguez puts it in play, allowing the Dodgers to record the out and end the inning. Despite the frustrating back-and-forth with the umpire, Buehler showcases his impressive arsenal and moxie, battling Rodríguez twice in the same at-bat. The Dodgers maintain their slim lead as the game heads to the bottom of the fourth.
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentTop of the fourth inning, and Walker Buehler, my Moxie King, is locating his pitches.
Strike one there.
Oh, you want to bunt?
Strike two on the nasty curve.
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So we got an 0-2 count.
Let's watch it again.
Come on.
Come on.
They're nice pitches.
Let's just watch it again.
First pitch, fastball.
A little cut fastball maybe.
Right in there.
Next pitch, curveball.
Got him.
0-2.
Back to the curve, but inside doesn't bite.
Okay.
1-2.
A little cutter inside doesn't bite, and then curve on the outside.
Boom.
Walker Buehler thinking, I'm nasty.
I'm nasty.
That was nice.
Walking around the mound feels good, right?
Next batter, slider, cutter, whatever he calls it, away.
1-0.
Fastball up and away, and nice piece of hitting by Robles, I believe, who goes with it for
a double.
So, okay.
First batter looked good.
Next batter, whatever.
He went with the pitch.
It was nice.
Get him.
Walk.
Walker Buehler.
Ooh, the eyes of J-Rod.
Beautiful.
Beautiful eyes.
First pitch.
Oh, let's watch that again.
That's, I don't know what he calls it.
Cutter, slider, whatever it is.
Just a little, excuse me.
That's such an odd, such an odd swing first pitch, because you want to be like fully committed.
It's almost like a two-strike protect swing out of J-Rod there, but I think he thought
it was going to go be a ball at the last second.
I don't know.
He's got him 0-1 on that swing.
He follows it up with a sinker.
So, fastball, two-seam fastball, hard 95 runs down.
That's nice, right?
Let's watch it again.
I'll drag it slow.
Boom.
You can see the way his fingers are going to just slide off it, almost underneath it
a little bit to get that run, and look at that, just trailing and trailing and diving.
Got him 0-2 again.
Yeah, he's thinking I'm nasty.
Look at me.
I'm doing everything I want to do out here.
This is a great.
This is a great inning.
Screw the double.
I don't care.
All right.
I went 80 miles per hour sweeper.
I went 95 fastball.
Let's go into another decade.
Let's go into the 70s.
Let's back him up with a curveball.
So, here we go, and right where he wants.
Oh, that's a strike, CB.
Oh, not even close.
CB Buckner saying, it went around.
Hey, hey, it went around.
It went around.
It went around.
Oh, screaming back at him.
Takes his, hey, hey, hey, what are you doing?
What's the yelling about, CB?
Huh?
What's that?
I'm just, I'm trying to protect my guy.
So am I.
So am I.
Yeah, I don't want to get, I don't want to get him ejected either.
That's why I'm letting him know that went around.
Okay, I'm CB Buckner.
People thought I was going to be the worst dump ever after Hernandez retired, but actually
no, Laz is taking a lot of heat off me.
Got to give credit to Roberts.
He's always real quick running out there to protect his guys.
Back to this at bat, because it's a great battle the rest of the way.
Now, Bueller thinks he struck him out with that curve ball, and he's going back in his
mind.
He says, well, that sweeper, that was a bad swing that he took on that.
He kind of was like in a protect mode on it.
Let's go back to the sweeper.
We'll start the sequence over again, and here's how it plays out.
So he's going to go back to the sweeper, away, and kind of like goes with the pitch, stares
at him like, nah, that's too far away, man.
No swing.
Um, says no swing back to the sweeper again, again, trying to get him to chase.
And Jared's like, I'm not chasing it, dude.
I'm seeing that you bring it in.
It's going, but I'm not chasing it.
Walker's like, all right, all right, all right.
I'll bring it in.
That's the pitch you want.
Here you go.
Bam in the zone and hammered foul.
So Bueller's like, all right, last time I went sweeper.
Then I went sinker and that worked because he's sitting soft.
And there we go again.
Same sequence.
Sweeper.
Sweeper, sinker.
And now three, two, he went sweeper, sinker, curve.
That was the pitch he thought was strike three.
Didn't get.
So he's, is he going to do the same exact sweep sequence?
Does J-Rod know he is?
I think he did.
I think he was waiting for it.
He just did not get it.
Puts it up in the air, grabbed for the out and Bueller wins the battle.
And he'll tell you he won it twice, but nice little battle.
Looked like J-Rod was sitting off speed.
Wanted that slider in the zone.
Almost got it.
You still got one more out to go and now the lefty's up and he's going to have a lot of fun there.
95 in the zone, curve ball inside, right off that.
And then I think he goes a little cut fastball right inside again and gets out of it.
Nice pitching by Walker Bueller, the Moxie King.
Nice breakdown by me is what all the comments will say probably.
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Thank you to you guys for watching it.
Thank you for baseball for being so entertaining because I enjoy,
I enjoyed that.