Carlos Santana ended up with an extra ball in his count after a messy sequence involving missed calls and a distracted scoreboard operator. It started during a high-action at-bat where a wild pitch and a stolen base confused everyone, including umpire Laz Diaz. The first pitch was a ball, then a stolen base occurred on a pitch that was called a strike—but no one seemed to hear or see it. Santana appeared to think it was a ball, and the scoreboard reflected 2-0 when it was actually 1-1. The next pitch, also a strike, brought it to 1-2, but the board still didn’t catch up.
Then things got worse. A ball made the count 2-2, but the scoreboard showed 3-1. When Diaz correctly announced 2-2, Santana pushed back, pointed at the board, and convinced Diaz to give him a 3-1 count. Diaz backed down, took the blame, and changed the count despite having it right the first time. Nobody from the opposing team, including the catcher, pitcher, manager, or even the other umpires, stepped in. Diaz repeated “3-1” multiple times to make it official. On the next pitch, Santana walked—except he shouldn’t have. That walk helped spark a rally for Seattle.
In the end, everyone shared the blame: the umpire for giving in, the scoreboard for being wrong, Santana for misunderstanding the earlier count, and the rest of the officiating crew for staying silent. It wasn’t a case of a player deliberately tricking anyone but more a result of collective confusion. The Mariners benefited from the mess and the at-bat turned into an unexpected turning point.