MLB umpire breaks silence on odd mistake of three-strike walk for Red Sox's Bryan Bello

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MLB umpire breaks silence on odd mistake of three-strike walk for Red Sox's Bryan Bello originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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During the Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros game, one of the stranger occurrences in MLB history happened to Bryan Bello.

While pitching to Cam Smith, Bello got to a 0-1 count before throwing a pitch that Smith swung at to make it 0-2. But, the umpire and everyone else on the field acted as if the count was 1-1, as Smith's swing-and-miss on pitch three turned into a 1-2 count.

After the game, Chandler Rome of The Athletic shared the reaction from home-plate umpire Mark Wegner, who admitted that this was a simple mistake, and one he was not happy about making.

MLB umpire admits mistake on odd pitch-count issue 

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

This isn't the only time an umpire and the players, managers, and everyone mistook what the count was. But this case might be a special one.

Not only did Wegner mistake the call, giving Smith a ball and taking away a strike, but with Smith walking later in the at-bat, it was the first ever three-strike, three-ball walk in MLB history.

Smith should have struck out on three pitches, but he was walked despite Bello throwing only three balls in the at-bat. Not only did Smith get out of a strikeout, but he was gifted an early walk as well.

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It was a bizarre mistake for Wegner to make, and one that happened largely in part due to the chaos on the second pitch, which led to a run scoring after the Red Sox made multiple blunders trying to catch a base-stealer.

All of that action led Wegner to make the wrong call with the pitch count. Wegner said that "It must have" messed him up, as after that 0-1 swinging strike, the count magically turned to 1-1.

While Bello was given the short straw, having to get a batter out without throwing three balls and needing to get four strikes, Smith was able to win the battle and make it to first base.

This is one of the stranger incidents in MLB history, and it happened in Game 5 of the 2026 MLB season. Wegner was regretful over this mistake, and it's such an odd one that it might never happen again in MLB history.

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