Umpire forgets count during Mookie Betts at-bat

Mookie Betts nearly missed out on a walk Thursday night.

The Los Angeles Dodgers were tied 2-2 with the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday and Mookie Betts came to the plate in the sixth inning. He worked the count full and drew a walk. He and the umpire just didn’t realize it was ball four.

Betts took a ball and no one moved. The umpire did not call for Betts to take first and the batter dug in for another pitch. He fouled off the next pitch before the dugout finally realized what happened and called for a review.

Mookie Betts gets his walk

The box score shows the fact Betts took ball four, only to hit a foul ball on the next pitch. It then says he walked. So anyone who did not watch the game may be terribly confused how that all went down.

This is not a terribly rare occurrence and is actually made more likely given the lack of fans in attendance. It is not like the catcher is going to say anything if he realized both the batter and the umpire are unaware of the count.

The problem was fixed and Betts took his base. But the inning ended with the next batter and the Diamondbacks scored three runs in the bottom half of the inning to go up by a score of 5-2 that would hold until the end of the game.

What this situation does bring up is the fact Betts could have gotten a hit on that extra pitch. That would create a scenario where the Diamondbacks could even challenge, thus revealing they knew the count all along.

MLB Umpires may need to invest in the handheld ball and strike counter used by youth baseball umps if using the giant scoreboards isn’t easy enough.