Xander Bogaerts Furious After Getting Called Out on First Ridiculous Clock

The San Diego Padres kicked off the 2024 MLB season against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Korea as part of the league’s Seoul Series. The Dodgers won the first game on Wednesday but the Padres managed to even things up on Thursday and now both teams will enter next week’s Opening Day with a .500 record. The first series of the year gave us home runs and random broadcast tangents and, of course, the first ridiculous clock violation of the season.

In the top of the eighth inning Xander Bogaerts was in the box facing a 1-2 count, aiming to help San Diego preserve their one-run lead. He took his time and then settled into his stance and waited for J.P. Feyereisen to begin his wind-up on the mound. At that point the home plate umpire stepped up, waved off the pitcher, and signaled to Bogaerts that he was out. Why? He apparently ran out of time on his batter clock, which is an automatic strike, and with a 1-2 count it was curtains for Bogaerts. He was less than pleased with this development and ended up getting in the umpire’s face.

I mean, can you blame him? He was clearly ready to go. He had been ready to go for a few seconds. The only reason the pitch didn’t get thrown before the ump stepped in was because the catcher was adjusting to the location he wanted Feyereisen to hit. If Bogaerts was taking too long then the umpire should’ve stepped in immediately. The fact that he didn’t means the clock didn’t expire until a few seconds into this clip, which means Bogaerts was ready before the clock expired!

It is, admittedly, warm-up season for the umpires too but the adjustment period for this clock stuff took place last year. These sorts of mistakes can’t happen at this point. Especially in a one-run game in the eighth between two division rivals. Bogaerts’ reaction was both understandable and justified.

And with this first egregious umpire error, the baseball season is officially underway. Congratulations, everybody.