In the long grind of an MLB season, umpires are bound to make a few human errors. This week, CB Bucknor and Mark Wegner found themselves in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. While Bucknor’s blunder grabbed headlines, Wegner’s misstep flew under the radar until it was too late to fix.
During Game 2 of the Boston Red Sox vs. Houston Astros series at Daikin Park, Wegner was calling balls and strikes behind the plate.
The Astros were up 5-1 in the bottom of the fifth when Cam Smith stepped up to bat with runners on the corners. Facing Red Sox starter Bryan Bello, Smith quickly fell behind 0-2 after missing a low breaking ball.
Meanwhile, the runner on first took off for second, and an errant throw allowed the man on third to score.
Here’s where things got tricky. Wegner lost track of the count, forgetting to mark the pitch as a strike.
Despite Smith swinging and missing again on a similar pitch, Wegner didn’t call him out. Instead, the count stayed 0-2, and Smith eventually worked a nine-pitch walk.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora and his players didn’t catch the mistake in real time. After the game, which ended in a 9-2 loss for Boston, Cora admitted he was unaware of the error. On the flip side, the Astros’ manager claimed he noticed Wegner’s oversight.
Reflecting on the incident, Wegner, a 26-year MLB veteran who recently served as a World Series crew chief, expressed regret: “I’ve never done that before. I’m not happy about it. Just made a mistake.”
This incident serves as a reminder of the human element in baseball, where even seasoned umpires can have an off day.