diff --git a/rediscluster/connection.py b/rediscluster/connection.py
index 70dadd0b..a8f4d551 100644
--- a/rediscluster/connection.py
+++ b/rediscluster/connection.py
@@ -277,7 +277,7 @@ def make_connection(self, node):
 
         return connection
 
-    def release(self, connection):
+    def release(self, connection, add_to_pool=True):
         """
         Releases the connection back to the pool
         """
@@ -296,7 +296,15 @@ def release(self, connection):
             pass
             # TODO: Log.warning("Tried to release connection that did not exist any longer : {0}".format(connection))
 
-        self._available_connections.setdefault(connection.node["name"], []).append(connection)
+        if add_to_pool:
+            self._available_connections.setdefault(connection.node["name"], []).append(connection)
+        else:
+            # If we don't add it back to the pool it shouldn't count towards the
+            # connection pool, or we'll artificially reduce the maximum size of the
+            # pool
+            self._created_connections_per_node.setdefault(node['name'], 0)
+            if self._created_connections_per_node[connection.node["name"]] > 0:
+                self._created_connections_per_node[connection.node["name"]] -= 1
 
     def disconnect(self):
         """
@@ -538,7 +546,7 @@ def get_connection_by_node(self, node):
 
         return connection
 
-    def release(self, connection):
+    def release(self, connection, add_to_pool=True):
         """
         Releases the connection back to the pool
         """
@@ -546,9 +554,13 @@ def release(self, connection):
         if connection.pid != self.pid:
             return
 
+        # In some cases we don't want to add back this connection to the pool but
+        # we still want to free its slot
+        conn_to_add = connection if add_to_pool else None
+
         # Put the connection back into the pool.
         try:
-            self._get_pool(connection.node).put_nowait(connection)
+            self._get_pool(connection.node).put_nowait(conn_to_add)
         except Full:
             # perhaps the pool has been reset() after a fork? regardless,
             # we don't want this connection
diff --git a/rediscluster/pipeline.py b/rediscluster/pipeline.py
index 3eae7a39..e00e36ae 100644
--- a/rediscluster/pipeline.py
+++ b/rediscluster/pipeline.py
@@ -203,7 +203,15 @@ def _send_cluster_commands(self, stack, raise_on_error=True, allow_redirections=
             # we can build a list of commands for each node.
             node_name = node['name']
             if node_name not in nodes:
-                nodes[node_name] = NodeCommands(self.parse_response, self.connection_pool.get_connection_by_node(node))
+                try:
+                    nodes[node_name] = NodeCommands(self.parse_response, self.connection_pool.get_connection_by_node(node))
+                except:
+                    # Sommething happened, maybe the pool is full, we need to release any connection
+                    # we've taken or we'll leak them. Because we're not sure if the connections are
+                    # in a good state we'll release their slot but not reuse them
+                    for n in nodes.values():
+                        self.connection_pool.release(n.connection, add_to_pool=False)
+                    raise
 
             nodes[node_name].append(c)