SEATTLE — It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact low point of the season for a last-place team with a 45-54 record, but when looking back on the 2026 Cincinnati Reds, that low point may very well be somewhere in the seventh inning of Monday’s 8-0 loss to the Seattle Mariners.The inning featured a softly hit ball to precisely the wrong spot, an intentional walk gone wrong, a grand slam, an infield single off a pitcher’s glove, the inability to turn a double play and a fielder running into an umpire, leading to another hit.Reds left-handed reliever Caleb Ferguson summed it up on the field after he ended the inning with a strikeout, screaming what appeared to be an obscenity to put a frustrated exclamation point on the seven-hit, seven-run Mariners inning that turned a 1-0 game into an eight-run hole.
Wanted Cal Raleigh. Got Cal Raleigh. pic.twitter.com/BmMvnVwykL
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) July 21, 2026The game was effectively decided on Ferguson’s first pitch to Cal Raleigh: A 78.1 mph slurve that met Raleigh’s bat over the middle of the plate and landed 408 feet away in the left-field stands of T-Mobile Park. But what happened three batters later — when second baseman Edwin Arroyo ranged to his right across second base and, before he could field the ball, ran into second base umpire Bill Miller — exemplified the Reds’ season.Replays showed Ferguson mouthing his apparent disgust, a ready-made clip for lip-readers to parse in slow motion.When asked about the play, Ferguson responded, “You have to ask Bill,” referring to the umpire, and walked away.Reds manager Terry Francona didn’t expound on the situation much more: “You’d have to ask him. I don’t know. I don’t ever look up and think, well, where should an umpire be? That’s on them. It’s discouraging that it happened.”Discouraging has been the theme of the season.
