VIDEO: Umpires Forget the Count and Cause Massive Delay in Brewers vs Marlins

MLB umpires are tasked with making calls on the base paths, determining whether pitches are balls or strikes and much more every day. They're always going to get hounded for borderline decisions, but what happened during the Milwaukee Brewers vs Miami Marlins game on Saturday is inexcusable.

Marlins' Jesus Sanchez was up to bat during the sixth inning when the game had to be stopped because of differing opinions on what the count was. Home plate umpire Bill Welke got together with the rest of the crew before having to call New York to sort it all out, which took nearly five minutes.

The umpires in Miami all forgot what the count was, so they had to get on the phone with MLB in New York and took over four minutes to figure it out pic.twitter.com/Vn4dfBIllo
— Welcome to the Ump Show (@umpjob) May 15, 2022

MLB News

Yikes, that is not what young fans trying to get into the sport of baseball want to see. Commissioner Rob Manfred has been attempting to speed games up with rules such as the ghost runner in extra innings and a pitch clock that has been implemented at minor league levels throughout the country.

Keep in mind this is the exact type of scenario that people pining for robot umpires are also going to feed off of moving forward. An automatic strike zone has become one of the more divisive ideas in the sport as fans must decide whether or not the human aspect of umpiring adds to the excitement.

When it comes down to it, this is just another bump in the road for what has been a rough start to the season for MLB umpires. While blown calls have become an expected regularity, it's likely going to be a long time before seeing another umpire completely forget what the count is when behind the plate.

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