The Cincinnati Reds are going through it right now. Going into the last game of the Cubs series, they were already on a 5-game losing streak, and they had a good chance to break it. But they were blown out 8-3, and one moment is making Reds fans question the team’s direction.

Jomboy posted a video of the incident and explained what had happened. “Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson did not realize it was a tag-play and just let the run score,” said Jomboy Media.

The Cincinnati Reds looked like one of baseball’s biggest surprises after opening this season with a 20-11 record. And suddenly everything has started to fall apart. Cincinnati dropped 7 straight games during a brutal away stretch.

Three of those losses came against the Chicago Cubs, including back-to-back extra innings walk-off defeats.

And the error that Tyler Stephenson made is just a reflection of this.

In the last game of the Cubs series, the Cubs were leading 2-0 in the 4 inning, and the Reds were still in the game. Cubs’ shortstop Dansby Swanson hit a sharp grounder to Ke’Bryan Hayes with bases loaded and no outs.

Hayes stepped on third base cleanly before firing home, removing the force play at home. So, when Stephenson got the ball, he had to tag the runner, but he appeared to go blank. Stephenson mistakenly stepped onto home plate instead of tagging Ian Happ. So, the umpires ruled that it was an RBI, and Happ scored.

And everything went sideways from there.

That single mistake shifted the momentum towards the Cubs, and they went on to score a total of 7 runs in that inning, and that put the Reds out of the game completely. In that game, the Reds left 15 runners in scoring position and struck out 12 times.

But this is just the reflection of the struggles the Reds are going through. Injuries to Emilio Pagan and Rhett Lowder are a major problem, especially with Hunter Greene already on the IL. And the impact of this can be seen clearly as the Reds have allowed a total of 42 runs across the last 4 losses.

But there is more, just in this series, the Cubs walked off the Reds on a simple ground ball to Elly De La Cruz, who misplayed it. And the Reds have a team average of just .237 over the last 10 games. And despite being 2 games over .500, Cincinnati has allowed 178 runs while scoring only 153 runs through 38 games.

If this continues, the Reds fans will have a lot more questions, if they already don’t.

Reds’ fans call out the team after the catcher makes a big blunder

The Cincinnati Reds fans are so frustrated that every small mistake is now being held accountable for the position the team is in.

One frustrated Reds fan wrote, “Tyler Stephenson is a complete moron,” after the costly mistake against the Cubs. When a player is earning $6.8 million, the fans expect him to be attentive on the field. And having played 589 games in the MLB, Stephenson can’t be making such mistakes.

One frustrated fan wrote, “Baseball has a bunch of players that don’t know what they are doing” after Cincinnati’s latest mishap. Other than the Tyler Stephenson error, Elly De La Cruz misplayed a groundball and helped the Cubs walk off in extra innings. This just shows that the Reds are going through a rough patch. And nothing they do seems to be going their way.

One frustrated fan wrote, “This team has the lowest IQ,” after Cincinnati’s latest embarrassing defensive collapse against Chicago. Before this error, rookie infielder Sal Stewart messed up another scoring opportunity after getting caught helplessly between third base and home. Adding this to the errors that the Reds have made over the past few games, the frustration is valid.

One Reds fan asked, “Am I wrong to think the third basemen should be yelling tag tag tag,” pointing toward Cincinnati’s communication breakdown. The comment made sense because Ke’Bryan Hayes removed the force play before throwing home toward Tyler Stephenson. Several former players and fans online noted that infielders usually scream “tag” immediately after touching third base. Nobody is telling that Stephenson didn’t make a mistake. But it could have been avoided if there had been better communication.

One confused fan called baseball’s force-play rule “crazy” after Tyler Stephenson’s costly mistake against Chicago. The frustration came because Ian Happ initially sprinted home, meaning that he was forced to run towards the plate. But the fact that Hayes touched the base before throwing it changes everything, and it has even left the fans in confusion.

And this is just a glimpse into how the season has progressed for the Reds. Even after having a decent start, the team seems not to be able to keep up.