KSReds: Welcome to the Show, Elly De La Cruz
Things came back down to Earth on Thursday afternoon, but you couldn’t have asked for a better Tuesday and Wednesday. Great American Ball Park was absolutely buzzing after Elly De La Cruz was called up from Louisville to make his Major League debut. The 21-year old superstar certainly did not disappoint either. De La Cruz is already re-writing the record books in Cincinnati. Whether it be exit velocity, launch angle, or sprint speed this prospect already has it all.
The cardiac Reds lived up to their name to begin the series with back-to-back comeback, walk-off victories. It was a much needed series win after a three losses to the Milwaukee Brewers. While they suffered a 6-0 loss on Thursday, it felt like Cincinnati was playing with house money at that point. This is now one of the youngest, most exciting teams in baseball. Also, most importantly, they are actually in reasonable striking distance of the playoff race. The Reds are now 29-34 and five games behind the first place Brewers.
After surviving a tough homestand, the Reds will hit the road to play nine games in 10 days. Up first is a weekend series against the National League Central rival St. Louis Cardinals. Ben Lively will get the start at 8:15 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday night. Andrew Abbott and Hunter Greene are also slated to start in St. Louis. Then, Cincinnati will move on to Kansas City before finishing their road trip with three games in Houston.
Elly De La Cruz Makes His Debut
You would have been hard-pressed to script a better beginning to 21-year old sensation Elly De La Cruz’ career. While it didn’t start off so pretty for the Cincinnati Reds, the end result was the most exciting victory of the season. Meanwhile, game number one of the De La Cruz era saw the rookie go 1-3 at the plate while drawing two walks and scoring a run. The double he hit in his second at bat was truly electric both in terms of how hard he hit the ball and how quickly he got to second base.
After the Los Angeles Dodgers scored three runs in the top of the first, the Reds immediately answered in the bottom half. With the bases loaded, Spencer Steer was hit by a pitch and then Tyler Stephenson singled in a pair of runs to tie the game at 3-3. The Dodgers would build an even larger advantage in fourth off of a home run by J.D. Martinez and a grand slam from Freddie Freeman. However, that 8-3 lead would prove to not be safe either.
The Reds started chipping away by scoring a run in the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings. Ironically, none of those three runs involved the ball even leaving the infield. It would be more of the same in the bottom of the ninth facing an 8-6 deficit. Curt Casali walked with the bases loaded to cut it to one and then Jake Fraley was hit by a pitch to tie it up. Finally, with the bases still loaded, Matt McLain sent one over the outfielder’s heads to the warning track for a long walk-off single. The 9-8, walk-off victory in front of over 22,000 raucous fans was the best atmosphere in Cincinnati since Opening Day.
Elly De La Cruz Goes Yard
Not that there was much doubt that it would happen, but it only took 10 Major League innings for Elly De La Cruz to fully cement his status as a Cincinnati Reds favorite. The Dodgers once again struck first scoring two runs in the top of the first. However, the Reds star rookie nearly exited Great American Ball Park with a two-run shot in the bottom half of the frame. It was a 458-foot home run to right field that just about went over the bleachers. While the home run was incredible, his triple in the third inning may have turned even more heads. Watching this 6’5″ physical freak run the bases is truly incredible.
Similar to Tuesday night, the Dodgers would quickly rebuild a sizable lead after the initial Reds comeback. Miguel Vargas hit a home run in the second inning. Will Smith added a two-run home run in the third and a RBI double from Vargas made it a 6-2 game in the middle of the third. However, once again, there was a quick comeback to be made. Jonathan India got it started with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the third to make it 6-3. Then, Spencer Steer singled in De La Cruz making it 6-4. Finally, Tyler Stephenson sent one 376-feet to the opposite field for a two-run home run that tied the game up at 6-6. That would end the scoring in Cincinnati for quite some time.
Both bullpens completely locked in through the middle innings all the way until the bottom of the ninth. Reds starter Brandon Williamson also deserves credit for settling in after a rocky first three innings to make it five and two-thirds. Buck Farmer, Lucas Sims, and Alexis Diaz backed him up with three and one-thirds perfect innings. The excitement came in the bottom of the ninth though for the second straight night. T.J. Hopkins reached base on an infield single to lead off of the inning. Then, Will Benson launched his first career home run 420-feet into the right field bleachers to walk it off for the Reds with an 8-6 victory. Once again, pandemonium set in at Great American Ball Park.
Reds Fall Short of Series Sweep
For as fun as Tuesday and Wednesday were, the Reds simply couldn’t get anything going on Thursday afternoon. The bats went cold for the most part as the Dodgers would pitch a 6-0 shutout to avoid the sweep. Veteran left-hander Clayton Kershaw was his typical dominant self on the mound going seven innings allowing just five hits and striking out nine. The 35-year old is now 8-4 on the season with a 2.95 earned run average. Meanwhile, Graham Ashcraft continued to struggle for Cincinnati. He is now just 3-5 with an ugly 6.78 ERA.
Elly De La Cruz did keep his hit streak alive with a single from the right side followed by a stolen base. However, he also struck out three times. The rookie is still slashing an insane .364/.462/.909 through his first three games.
For the Dodgers, all of their damage was done in the third and fourth innings. Freddie Freeman finished a perfect 2-2 on the day with a pair of RBI and Chris Taylor went deep to help build their comfortable margin. This time, there would be no Reds comeback in the cards. Los Angeles improved to 36-27 on the season while Cincy fell to 29-34.
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