Cincinnati Reds

Reds' ball boy has hilarious reaction after accidentally fielding ball in play

Published Jun. 8, 2017 1:50 p.m. ET

Pete Blackburn

The job of a ball boy seems pretty simple: Scoop up foul balls along the baseline and turn them into souvenirs for lucky fans. But the job can also require split-second reactions.

Unfortunately a Cincinnati Reds ball boy (who appears to be more of a ball man, if we're being honest) had the wrong reaction during Wednesday night's game against the Cardinals.

During the bottom of the seventh inning, Reds shortstop Zack Cozart ripped a liner down the third base line that traveled over the bag and headed straight toward the ball boy. The ball boy made a nice play on the grounder and fielded it on the backhand cleanly.

Only ... it was ruled a fair ball.

So, what do you do in that situation? How do you react when you realize you've screwed up and now all eyes are fixed on you?

Well, drop the evidence and pretend like nothing happened.

https://gfycat.com/NextFirsthandHornedviper

The reaction was highly amusing, though it's easy to feel bad for the ball boy here. He found himself in the path of the ball and by the time the umpire made his ruling, the dude was already committed to making a play on it.

At least he didn't screw up the execution.

As a result of the play, Cozart was awarded a ground-rule double. He would go on to score on a home run by Joey Votto in the following at-bat. Those two runs made it 6-4 Cincinnati, which would ultimately be the game's final score.