De La Cruz went 1-for-3 with a walk and two steals in Wednesday's 4-3 loss to the Guardians.
De La Cruz, whose second-half slump prompted a drop in the order, has used his legs to make up for the shortcomings of his bat. Aside from the two home runs he hit Tuesday, the rookie has reached base safely six times and stolen six bases over the last five games. The two thefts leave him with 35 over 95 games.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Powers comeback win Tuesday
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De La Cruz went 3-for-5 with two home runs, three runs scored and four RBI in Tuesday's 11-7 win over the Guardians.
Hunter Greene dug an early hole in what was nearly a must-win game for Cincinnati, but De La Cruz led a five-homer barrage by the Reds offense to mount a comeback, launching a solo shot off Lucas Giolito in the fourth inning before crushing a Xzavion Curry curveball to right field in the ninth for two insurance runs. It's the first multi-homer game of De La Cruz's brief career, and the long balls snapped a 28-game power drought. The 21-year-old is slashing just .192/.306/.288 in September thanks in large part to a 31.4 percent strikeout rate, but he still has 13 home runs and 33 steals in his first 94 big-league games.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Steals two bags
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De La Cruz went 1-for-4 with a run scored and two stolen bases in Friday's 7-5 loss to Pittsburgh.
The good and bad of De La Cruz was on the display Friday. He stole second and third base and eventually scored to put the Reds on top in the second inning. He gave back to the opponent later when a throwing error -- his 14th -- allowed Pittsburgh's winning run to score. De La Cruz's bat may slumber, but his legs refuse to take a break. Despite going 3-for-19 over the last seven games, the rookie has stolen five bases during that stretch. De La Cruz is up to 31 steals through 91 games.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Riding pine Wednesday
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De La Cruz is not in Wednesday's lineup against the Twins.
De La Cruz is hitting .161 with zero home runs and six steals in 17 games this month. Noelvi Marte is starting at shortstop while Christian Encarnacion-Strand mans the hot corner.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Gets breather Friday
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De La Cruz is out of the lineup Friday against the Mets.
For the second time in as many matchups with a left-handed pitcher (David Peterson), the switch-hitting De La Cruz will take a seat. Noelvi Marte will fill in at shortstop for De La Cruz, who is stuck in a 1-for-20 funk at the plate over his last seven contests.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Steals base in win
Rotowire
De La Cruz entered Wednesday's game as a pinch runner and stole a base in a 4-3 win over the Tigers.
De La Cruz, who has slumped during the second half of the season, was held out of the starting lineup against lefty Eduardo Rodriguez on Wednesday. The switch hitter had snapped an 0-for-22 run against southpaws the previous day. De La Cruz ran for Christian Encarnacion-Strand in the sixth inning and stole his 27th base, then stayed in the game to play shortstop and went 0-for-1. De La Cruz is batting .181 since the All-Star break.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Getting day off Wednesday
Rotowire
De La Cruz is not in the lineup for Wednesday's game versus the Tigers.
De La Cruz is sporting a .459 OPS with no home runs over his last 19 games, so it's probably not a bad time for him to recharge his battery. Noelvi Marte will play shortstop Wednesday.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Speed helps in win
Rotowire
De La Cruz went 2-for-4 with a walk, a run scored and a stolen base in Tuesday's 7-6 win over Seattle.
De La Cruz scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning. Having been thrown out attempting to steal earlier in the game, the speedy and confident De La Cruz reached base on an infield single then stole second base. From there, he came in on Christian Encarnacion-Strand's walk-off single. The steal was De La Cruz's 25th in 32 attempts while in the majors. Including the minors, he's swiped 36 bags (caught 13 times).
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Two hits in loss
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De La Cruz went 2-for-4 with a double, a triple, an RBI and a run scored in Saturday's 4-3 loss to Toronto.
De La Cruz was involved in the game's most electrifying play. His triple, which knocked in Matt McLain, turned into a Little League home run when Cavan Biggio's throw to the infield was ruled an error. De La Cruz went from home to home in 15.30 seconds, per Allie Kaylor of MLB.com, the quickest by a Red in the Statcast era (since 2015) and third fastest in MLB this season. He has multiple hits in three of seven games and five RBI since dropping to third in the order.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Bounces back in nightcap
Rotowire
De La Cruz went 2-for-5 with a home run in the second game of Sunday's doubleheader against Pittsburgh. He was 0-for-4 in the matinee.
De La Cruz made amends for his four-strikeout performance in the afternoon loss, crushing a 442-foot homer to tie the game in the third inning. The outfielder has four hits in 14 at-bats with a triple, a home run and four RBI since being dropped from leadoff to third in the order. The home run was his 10th in 58 games for the Reds and 22nd in 96 combined contests in the minors and majors.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Belts eighth homer
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De La Cruz went 1-for-4 with a solo home run Thursday in a loss to the Cubs.
De La Cruz smashed a 424-foot blast on the first pitch of the contest for his second leadoff homer of the campaign. Of the rookie phenom's eight long balls this season, four have come over his past 10 games. However, De La Cruz struck out twice Thursday, and he's posted a massive 42 percent strikeout rate over 18 contests since the All-Star break. Despite De La Cruz's recent slump, Reds manager David Bell intends to leave him at leadoff, per Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer. The rookie, who was moved to leadoff 15 games ago, is slashing .203/.277/.407 atop the order.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Heads to bench Wednesday
Rotowire
De La Cruz is out of the lineup for Wednesday's game against the Cubs.
The standout rookie will sit for just the third time since receiving the call to the majors in early June. Nick Senzel will enter the lineup at third base in place of De La Cruz, who heads to the bench after going 1-for-9 with six strikeouts and a walk between the first two games of the series in Chicago.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Homers in four-hit game
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De La Cruz went 4-for-5 with a solo home run and an additional run scored in Sunday's 9-0 win over the Dodgers.
De La Cruz had no trouble setting the table from the leadoff spot, and he also showed some power with his second-inning blast. Sunday's effort was already his third career four-hit game. The 21-year-old had gone 16 games without a multi-hit effort. He's now at a .277/.322/.473 slash line with seven homers, 20 RBI, 37 runs scored and 17 stolen bases through 46 contests.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Slugs ball out of park
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De La Cruz went 1-for-4 with a two-run home run Monday in a loss to the Brewers.
De La Cruz led off the contest with a shot that appeared destined to clear the center-field fence but was robbed of a homer by Joey Wiemer. The Reds' rookie slugger ensured that wouldn't happen again in the third when he belted a monstrous 456-foot two-run blast that left American Family Field entirely. It was another highlight in what has been an explosive rookie campaign for De La Cruz, who has gone deep in each of his past two games after starting Saturday's contest against Arizona on the bench amidst what had been an extended slump.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Receives rare rest
Rotowire
De La Cruz will be on the bench for Saturday's game against the Diamondbacks.
De La Cruz sits for just the second time since being called up in early June. He's been stuck in a slump since the break, going 2-for-31 with 15 strikeouts and dropping his OPS from .887 to .757. The arrival of Christian Encarnacion-Strand crowds the Reds' roster, and the team is in the thick of a playoff race, so De La Cruz will need to keep performing to remain in an everyday role down the stretch.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Bats leadoff again
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De La Cruz batted leadoff in Thursday's 5-1 win over the Giants, going 1-for-4 with a walk and a caught stealing.
De La Cruz was atop the order for a fourth straight game, all coming against right-handers. TJ Friedl had served in that role previously but was dropped to second behind the dynamic rookie. De La Cruz has slumped since the All-Star break, going 2-for-28 (.071) over seven games.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Steals spotlight again in win
Rotowire
De La Cruz went 2-for-5 with two runs, an RBI and three stolen bases Saturday in an 8-5 win against Milwaukee.
De La Cruz seems to find a way to dazzle on a daily basis, and Saturday was no exception. The phenom provided a highlight-reel sequence in the seventh inning when he plated the go-ahead run with a two-out single, stole second, stole third and proceeded to steal home by catching the Brewers napping. De La Cruz has notched at least one theft in four straight games, going 12-for-22 (.545 average) at the plate with a home run, four RBI, five runs and seven steals during that stretch. He's already up to 16 stolen bases on the campaign despite having played in just 29 games.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Has bat checked
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Washington manager Davey Martinez had De La Cruz's bat checked prior to his first at-bat in Wednesday's 9-2 win over the Nationals, Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports.
De La Cruz uses a rubber sleeve over the knob of that bat, which normally houses an electronic telemetry device used as a swing tracker in batting practice. Umpires ordered him to remove the sleeve for his first at-bat, which ended in a strikeout. The Reds received clearance from MLB for De La Cruz to use the rubber housing, sans electronics, but that was not communicated to the umpiring crew prior to the game. Once MLB cleared the use of the sleeve, De La Cruz launched a home run that traveled 455 feet in his next at-bat and added two doubles.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Notches four hits in victory
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De La Cruz went 4-for-4 with an RBI, a run scored and a steal in Tuesday's win over Washington.
It's already the 10th multi-hit effort for De La Cruz through 25 MLB games and his second four-hit performance. After a fast start to his career, De La Cruz had cooled off slightly, going 5-for-36 (.139) with one extra-base hit over his previous eight games. With his big game Tuesday, the 21-year-old infielder boosted his slash line back up to .308/.348/.490 with three homers, 23 runs scored, 13 RBI and 10 steals through 112 plate appearances this season.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Gets breather Friday
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De La Cruz isn't in the Reds' lineup Friday against the Astros, Gordon Wittenmyer of The Cincinnati Enquirer reports.
After taking the majors by storm with a hot start to his MLB career, De La Cruz has cooled off as of late with just a .470 OPS over the last seven days. He'll get a day off Friday to regroup while Nick Senzel covers third base, Spencer Steer moves to left field and Kevin Newman starts at first.
