Brayan Bello, in particular…

Bello, in what would prove to be the final inning of his season debut, was forced to continue pitching despite recording the third out in the bottom of the fifth inning, which eventually led to a walk that forced him out of the game in a 9-2 loss at Daikin Park.

Bello forced three consecutive whiffs out of Astros outfielder Cam Smith, but after his club combined for two errors following the second pitch of the sequence, no one seemed to notice — not Bello, not Smith, not catcher Connor Wong, not home plate umpire Mark Wegner. 

Alex Cora was asked about the sequence postgame and his response would indicate he didn’t notice, either.

“No, not really to be honest with you,” Cora said when asked if anyone noticed, as seen on NESN. “I don’t even know what to say about that.”

The Red Sox didn’t end up losing because of the sequence, but they certainly could have afforded to get out of that inning sooner than they did. It’s one of those rare things that almost never happens despite us having nearly two centuries of history to look back upon — and we should be happy it doesn’t.

If you missed what happened, you can get a full breakdown here.

More MLB: Red Sox, Astros Seemingly Lose Track Of Outs During Ugly Inning