Leody Taveras was somewhere out in La La Land during Tuesday’s game.
The Baltimore Orioles outfielder Taveras produced one of the most embarrassing moments of the 2026 season in his team’s game against the Seattle Mariners. Taveras was batting for Baltimore to lead off the bottom of the ninth at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Md.
With his team trailing 4-2, Taveras worked a 3-2 count from Mariners reliever Jose Ferrer. But Taveras somehow lost track of the count and started walking to first base after ball 3.
Taveras then compounded the mistake by taking his sweet time to get set in the batter’s box for the next pitch. Because Taveras was not in the box and alert to the pitcher by the eight-second count, he was called for a pitch timer violation. As a result, Taveras was automatically given strike 3 for an extremely humiliating strikeout.
mariners legend leody taveras just struck out on a pitch clock violation in the bottom of the 9th pic.twitter.com/9ea6thtVzF
— In pLy, Ran(s) (@lyagonalcutters) June 10, 2026
It is difficult to overstate how horrific that mistake was by Taveras. He was the leadoff batter in the ninth inning during a tight ballgame and ended up giving away an out on an absurd brain fart like that.
Taveras did end up getting bailed out by his Orioles teammates, who proceeded to score two runs in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game after the screw-up. But as a seven-year MLB veteran, Taveras looked even worse than a raw rookie on that play (which might be tied for the worst blunder of the year with the one that Tyler Stephenson produced last month).
