{"id":657555,"date":"2026-04-01T22:37:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T22:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/657555\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T22:37:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T22:37:49","slug":"ive-never-done-that-before-why-mlb-umpire-mark-wegner-is-catching-heat-for-forgetting-count","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/657555\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019ve never done that before\u2019 Why MLB umpire Mark Wegner is catching heat for forgetting count"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018I\u2019ve never done that before\u2019 Why MLB umpire Mark Wegner is catching heat for forgetting count<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Houston Astros<\/a> claimed a 9-2 win over the Boston Red Sox<\/a> on Tuesday night. And while it didn’t prove consequential on the scoreboard, a significant error on the part of the home-plate umpire went against Boston.<\/p>\n

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Veteran umpire Mark Wegner acknowledged that he lost track of the count for Astros outfielder Cam Smith’s at-bat in the fifth inning against Red Sox starter Brayan Bello.<\/p>\n

Smith, who should have struck out on a swing-and-miss but was instead granted an 1-2 count, went on to work a walk.<\/p>\n

Here’s what Wegner said of the mistake he made in tracking the count on Smith.<\/p>\n

MORE: Tracking every controversial C.B. Bucknor call so far in 2026 MLB season<\/a><\/p>\n

MLB umpire admits he forgot count<\/p>\n

When Smith came to the plate in the fifth inning of Tuesday’s game, he had three swinging strikes vs. Bello, which should have been a strikeout. On the second pitch, a throwing error on a steal attempt allowed the Astros’ runner at third base to score. But in the moments afterward, nobody seemed to notice that Smith’s third swing-and-miss was a strikeout.<\/p>\n

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Wegner signaled “strike,” but none of Smith, Bello, the managers or players appeared to take notice that it should have been a strikeout.<\/p>\n

Instead, Smith was given a 1-2 count after his third strike, despite not taking a ball. He went on to foul off the fourth pitch, take the fifth pitch as a ball, foul off the sixth pitch, take the seventh pitch as a ball, foul off the eighth pitch, then take the ninth pitch as a high ball.<\/p>\n

Smith walked in an at-bat where he should have struck out and only took three balls.<\/p>\n

That was also Bello’s final batter, as he was pulled by manager Alex Cora. Boston did not allow any more runs in the inning, but went on to lose 9-2.<\/p>\n

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Wegner told reporters postgame that he noticed his mistake.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just watched the video,\u201d Wegner said, per The New York Post<\/a>. \u201cI somehow didn\u2019t count the second swinging one because I said the count was 1-2. It was actually strike three \u2026 I\u2019ve never done that before. I\u2019m not happy about it. Just made a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wegner, however, also said that “no one on the field said a word” about the mistake. He added that he believes it was the second pitch, just before the steal attempt and runner scoring, that he missed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt must have [been] because that\u2019s the strike that I didn\u2019t count on my indicator,\u201d Wegner said. \u201cBecause the next one he swung at, I gave a count that said 1-2, and it was the third strike.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bello was also asked about the at-bat, saying he didn’t question it at the time when Wegner said it was a 1-1 count after two pitches.<\/p>\n

Bello said Wegner gave the count as 1-1 after his second pitch, and he didn’t question it at the time.<\/p>\n

“I thought the first pitch was a strike, and I thought that he swung at the second pitch,” Bello said in Spanish through an interpreter, per ESPN<\/a>. “None of that took me out of my focus in that inning. I tried to get out of that inning, and it didn’t happen.”<\/p>\n

Wegner’s mistake couldn’t have been directly influenced by MLB’s new ABS system, which allows players to challenge whether a taken pitch was a ball or strike. Because Smith had three swings-and-misses, there was nothing to challenge \u2014 Wegner, and everybody else in the game, simply just forgot the count and did not correct the mistake.<\/p>\n

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MORE:Explaining MLB’s new ABS challenge system<\/a><\/p>\n

Who is Mark Wegner?<\/p>\n

Mark Wegner is a longtime MLB umpire who is crew chief working his 29th major league season. He first began working National League games in 1998, then all MLB games by 2000.<\/p>\n

In 2018, Wegner was promoted to crew chief. He has umpired in three World Series, two All-Star Games and three World Baseball Classics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019ve never done that before\u2019 Why MLB umpire Mark Wegner is catching heat for forgetting count originally appeared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,48,5172,451,6920,54,26787,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-657555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-boston-red-sox","10":"tag-brayan-bello","11":"tag-cam-smith","12":"tag-fifth-inning","13":"tag-houston-astros","14":"tag-mark-wegner","15":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116331852852206762","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}