Umpire Forgets Count and No One Notices in Bizarre Red Sox-Astros Moment

No one had any idea what was going on.

Brayan Bello asks for clarification on the real count during strange sequence in Tuesday night's game. | Jomboy on X

Things have not gone well for the Red Sox during the first week of the MLB season and the bad vibes continued on Tuesday night as Alex Cora's team was pushed around by the Astros, 9-2. Boston is now 1-4 on the year, which isn't reason to panic but also not ideal in an American League East that promises to be extremely competitive.

The Red Sox entered the bottom of the fifth inning still clinging to hope and down 3-1. But the Astros would tack three runs on in the frame to put things well out of reach. Those came in truly bizarre fashion as everyone involved in the game forgot the count.

This bit of collective amnesia happened with Cam Smith at the plate and Brayan Bello on the mound. The at-bat began with runners on first and third and two outs. A swing-and-miss on the first pitch brought the count to 0-1 and then everyone began to lose the plot. On the next offering Smith swung through another pitch as Houston attempted a steal. The throw down to second bounded away, allowing the runner at third to score. Then another throw clanged off Bello's glove as the errors began to compound. In short, a lot happened.

So much that when action resumed and Smith whiffed on a third straight pitch, everybody acted like the count was 1-2 and stayed in their positions.

The ump and everyone else forgot the count here as this should’ve been a three-pitch strikeout, all swinging

Astros’ Cam Smith ended up walking, and Red Sox pitcher Brayan Bello was pulled from the game. Reliever Ryan Watson did retire the next batter pic.twitter.com/zF1QcPVQqz

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) April 1, 2026

The at-bat would then continue well after it should have ended with Smith working the count "full" after fouling a few pitches off and eventually earning a walk on three total balls. Bello did keep asking for the count during the sequence, so he was slightly confused, yet no one bothered to raise a stink about it and the broadcast didn't even notice as a swinging strike somehow resulted in an 0-2 count turning into 1-2 on the score bug.

Home plate umpire Mark Wegner admitted postgame that he forgot the count and none of that should have happened.

"I've never done that before," he said. "I'm not happy about it. Just made a mistake."

Home plate umpire Mark Wegner acknowledged to a pool reporter (@Chandler_Rome) that he forgot the count for Bello/Smith in the fifth inning of Red Sox-Astros today.

The walk should've been a strikeout.

"I've never done that before. I'm not happy about it. Just made a mistake." pic.twitter.com/BnVEhDmSGH

— Tim Healey (@timbhealey) April 1, 2026

Mistakes happen. Considering the intense scrutiny umpires are under and everyone's new fascination with challenges, it's just very surprising that no one spoke up. Or asked a more direct question about the count. Or needed a detailed accounting of what led up to a count announced as 1-2.

You may not like human error but it sure keeps everyone on their toes. Nothing here had any real impact on the outcome of the game so let's just chalk this one up to the game. And keep in mind just how easy it apparently is for something like this to happen.

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