Yankees’ Austin Wells Had Brutally Honest Explanation for His Bad Baserunning Mistake

Andy Nesbitt | Jul 31, 2025

Austin Wells lost track of how many outs there were in this pivotal moment of the Yankees-Rays game. / @MLB

Yankees catcher Austin Wells made one of the most embarrassing mistakes of the MLB season Wednesday night when he lost track of the number of outs in the bottom of the ninth inning and got tagged out on a weird play that left the announcers stunned and had Yankees fans on social media going nuts.

Making things even worse for Wells was that his gaffe happened in a tie game in the middle of a heated playoff race. The Yankees would go on to get a 5-4 win in extra innings, but his mistake can't be overlooked.

This all happened after New York's Trent Grisham laid down a bunt and got thrown out at first. Wells was able to get to second base but then wandered off the bag thinking the inning was over. He then got tagged out and heard a chorus of boos as he slowly made his way back to the dugout.

Wells was asked after the game if the Rays baited in him to thinking there were three outs. He denied that and instead put all of the blame on himself, saying: “I think I just was being an idiot.”

Here are his full comments on the moment:

“I think I just was being an idiot.” -Austin Wells pic.twitter.com/N9R0w8gHxd

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) July 31, 2025

Here's the play:

Austin Wells gets doubled up because he thought there were three outs pic.twitter.com/Hisfe05Mil

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) July 31, 2025

Wells is lucky the Yankees were still able to get a win because he never would have heard the end of that in New York if they hadn't.

---

More MLB on Sports Illustrated

feed