diff --git a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/PendingDeletes.java b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/PendingDeletes.java
index fca42b416d5..52d06e8fd29 100644
--- a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/PendingDeletes.java
+++ b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/PendingDeletes.java
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@ class PendingDeletes {
   /**
    * Resets the pending docs
    */
-  void reset() {
+  void dropChanges() {
     pendingDeleteCount = 0;
   }
 
@@ -223,7 +223,7 @@ class PendingDeletes {
     // (successfully written) del docs:
     info.advanceDelGen();
     info.setDelCount(info.getDelCount() + pendingDeleteCount);
-    reset();
+    dropChanges();
     return true;
   }
 
diff --git a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/PendingSoftDeletes.java b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/PendingSoftDeletes.java
index 0d7852b0eeb..4c3db482ab5 100644
--- a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/PendingSoftDeletes.java
+++ b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/PendingSoftDeletes.java
@@ -88,10 +88,10 @@ final class PendingSoftDeletes extends PendingDeletes {
   }
 
   @Override
-  void reset() {
-    dvGeneration = -2;
-    super.reset();
-    hardDeletes.reset();
+  void dropChanges() {
+    // don't reset anything here - this is called after a merge (successful or not) to prevent
+    // rewriting the deleted docs to disk. we only pass it on and reset the number of pending deletes
+    hardDeletes.dropChanges();
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/ReadersAndUpdates.java b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/ReadersAndUpdates.java
index 6dc88643181..b236bea68a0 100644
--- a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/ReadersAndUpdates.java
+++ b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/ReadersAndUpdates.java
@@ -287,7 +287,7 @@ final class ReadersAndUpdates {
     // is running, by now we have carried forward those
     // deletes onto the newly merged segment, so we can
     // discard them on the sub-readers:
-    pendingDeletes.reset();
+    pendingDeletes.dropChanges();
     dropMergingUpdates();
   }