Umpire, hitter and catcher all forget the count, a breakdown
What Happened
In a tightly contested ninth-inning battle, the stakes are high as the Chicago Cubs cling to a one-run lead over their opponent. Chicago Cubs pitcher C.B. Buckner takes the mound, facing off against the hitter as the crowd at Wrigley Field rises to their feet in anticipation. The first pitch from Buckner is a strike, setting the count at 0-1. The hitter swings and misses the next offering, making it 0-2. Buckner then tries to fool the hitter with a pitch below the strike zone, but it's called a ball, evening the count at 1-1. Buckner comes back with another strong pitch on the outside corner, and the hitter swings and misses, bringing the count to 1-2. As the Chicago faithful cheer on their team, something peculiar begins to unfold. Umpire C.B. Buckner appears unsure of the current count, checking his ticker multiple times and conferring with the dugout. The 3-2 pitch from Buckner is called a ball, but no one, including the hitter, catcher, or umpire, seems certain of the actual count. Buckner, the hitter, and catcher Chicago Cub Adley Rutschman all express confusion, with Rutschman suggesting they just treat it as a 2-2 count since that's how they were all acting. Eventually, the umpire and teams determine that the correct count was 3-2, and the hitter is awarded a walk, putting the tying run on base. Rutschman steps up to the plate, and the umpire again struggles with the strike zone, calling a questionable strike on a pitch outside. Rutschman voices his frustration, but the umpire stands by the call. With the game on the line, Rutschman grounds out to second base, and the Cubs secure the victory. As the crowd erupts in celebration, the umpire's confusion over the count has become the central talking point, with noting, "Umpire forgot to count.".
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentOne run game in the ninth inning. Strike one. This breakdown is brought to you by DraftKings.
Strike on the swing. Next pitch. Tries for the same thing below the zone. One and one count.
Then comes back away with it. That's a nice pitch for strike two. Both of the strikes swinging.
Chicago gets on their feet. One more, baby! Let's do it. This guy, he's like, okay,
hmm, might as well videotape it. Some cool might happen. The one-two pitch. Way away.
Non-competitive waste pitch. C.B. Buckner looks at his ticker, says, okay, the count is two and two.
It's not what he actually said. That is a ball low, but they like the pitch. Looks at his ticker
again. He says, okay, the count's two and two. The three-two pitch. Outside, and no one does
anything. He looks at his thing, and people from the dugout are like, hey, that's ball four. The
batter.
The catcher has no idea. The pitcher thought he had the strikeout. He has no idea. No one has any
idea. Besides everybody, besides the main participants, nobody has any idea, and probably
because C.B.'s been yelling out the wrong count. So he gets with his people, says, what do you guys
got? He's like, well, I had two and two, but they're saying up there that it was actually three
and two, and that was ball four. Are you sure? What do you got? What do you got? Anyone else
know? They're like, well, kind of your job.
C.B., and you yell it out and show us, and then we go off what you say. So, what? And they're like,
all right, let's just go ask the replay people if they can piece this puzzle together. They got all
the pitches. Meanwhile, here's a review, and no, no, no, not a strike, not a strike, but no one
moves. No one even thinks about it. The crowd kind of does. This guy wants the strike real bad.
Strike. Strike. What? I thought the game was over.
The pitch is ball four. No kidding. Yeah. How about that? I'm going to bat flip this walk. I
knew it the whole time. What did they be by me? Taking pitches, laying off, can't hold me back.
The catcher's like, well, if you thought it was two-two, and we thought it was two-two,
and he thought it was two-two, and we all act as if it's a two-two pitch, and we got one to waste,
I feel like it should be two-two. I don't think that's what Jan Gomes said, but if this was like
a backyard barbecue wiffleball game, I think you would make that up.
Dude, we all thought it was two-two, so doesn't that kind of make it two-two?
We were all treating it that way. Anyway, now the tying run is on first, and you got Adley up. He's
pretty good. Fastball away. Next pitch, fastball right down the middle, one and one, and then a
little cutter or slider outside, and CB calls it a strike, and Adley's like, come on, man, really?
He's like, oh, I do that. I do that, and I talked about this in the perfect game.
That the umpire called in the World Series, and I specifically pointed out CB Buckner. See how his
head is on the inside? The umpires that do this, their consistency on the outside is, for lack of
a better word, dog shit, because they don't have the proper angle. They're setting up inside on
everything, so the outside edge is always a dance, so he calls that one a strike. Now he's one strike
away from this game ending, and CB's like, yeah, that's what I want. I just need to get out of
here. In play!
He gobbled up at second, throws the first for the out, and then you go, vamos, coño!
Fired up. Always is. Hat backwards. Fly the W. The Cubs win. Umpire forgot to count. Thank you
to DraftKings for sponsoring this video. I appreciate you guys, as always, and thanks
to all of you for tuning in and watching them. Appreciate you guys as well.