MLB Umpire Made Embarrassing Mistake After Screwing Up the Count

Andy Nesbitt | Aug 14, 2025

Home plate umpire Derek Thomas forgot how many strikes there were during one at-bat. / @MLB

Being a home plate umpire at the major league level isn't the easiest job in the world and mistakes are often made thanks partly to pitchers throwing really nasty stuff these days and, well, the element of human error.

The latter of that was on display during Wednesday's Diamondacks-Rangers game in Arlington when Derek Thomas messed up something that should be easy for home plate umpires to keep track of—the count.

Arizona's Adrian Del Castillo was up in the fifth inning with two runners on. Thomas then rang him up on a called strike, only to quickly realize that was just the second strike of Del Castillo's at-bat. Thomas quickly corrected himself and let everyone know that it wasn't a strikeout.

The announcers had a good laugh over this:

Umpire accidentally rung the batter up with two strikes and then on the next pitch the Rangers gun Ketel Marte out at the plate to end the inning pic.twitter.com/JuqsZKhKOm

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) August 13, 2025

Del Castillo lined the next pitch to right field for a hit and then Thomas redeemed himself by making an easy call at home plate as Ketel Martel was thrown out trying to score.

Still, you have to think Thomas might hear a thing or two from his umpiring buddies over that glaring mistake on what was strike two.

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