Yankee Arena scaring? Obviously not really for Elly De La Cruz on Tuesday.
De La Cruz grew up as a Yankees fan, and his number one player was Derek Jeter. His most memorable Significant Association game as a fan was at the ballpark in the Bronx. Yet, when it was his most memorable time playing there, the 22-year-old adapted to the situation with a triple, a two-run grand slam and two runs scored for the Reds during a 5-4 triumph in the opener of a three-game series.
“I like it a ton,” De La Cruz said of Yankee Arena.
“That man, it nearly seems like when we get on stages like this he steps it up a score, and it’s noteworthy,” Reds beginning pitcher Graham Ashcraft said.
Elly De La Cruz’s 114.1 mph home run
De La Cruz is posing his last cases for a solicitation to the Elite player Game. In his last 10 games, he is batting .378 with a 1.204 Operations, three homers, three triples, four copies, three takes and eight RBIs.
“A few players are only agreeable in the large spot,” Reds supervisor David Ringer said. “It’s a sure city or area, yet the significance of a game, the significance of an at-bat. He’s only agreeable in those spots. He has faith in himself. He has certainty playing the game, and he’s right toward the start.”
Elly De La Cruz hits a triple
De La Cruz’s speed drew oohs and aahs from Yankees fans when he hit a fourth-inning leadoff triple to the right-field corner against Yankees youngster starter Luis Gil. The ball was handled by his companion, hotshot Juan Soto.
Notwithstanding a solid toss from Soto, De La Cruz effortlessly made some real progress with a carelessly slide.
“He was attempting to get me out. He can’t get me,” De La Cruz said of Soto.
From third base, De La Cruz scored the game’s originally run on Jeimer Candelario’s groundout to a respectable halfway point.
Will Benson’s two-run home run (9)
Cincinnati sent eight men to the plate and pursued Gil in the fifth inning. After leadoff player Stuart Fairchild was hit by a pitch, Will Benson hit a 0-1 fastball to focus field for a two-run homer – – his 10th of the time and first since May 28.
The right-given Gil hit his second player of the game, Jonathan India, prior to giving way to lefty reliever Caleb Ferguson. The thought was to turn the change hitting De La Cruz up to bat right-gave, which isn’t his most grounded side however improving.
Graham Ashcraft strikes out three against the Yankees
De La Cruz went after a 2-0 fastball from Ferguson for a thriving two-run homer into the Reds’ warm up area in left-focus field that gave Cincinnati a 5-0 lead.
“I feel the most certain. I’ve been working a ton,” De La Cruz said of his improvement hitting right-gave. “At this moment, I feel good on the two sides.”
Ashcraft didn’t need to actually observe the homer to realize it would have been great.
“You can’t see a single thing from plunking down on the seat in that burrow except if you’re up on the rail,” Ashcraft made sense of. “At the point when he hit it, I didn’t see the ball go out as I did [Benson’s]. I heard everyone go, ‘Gracious!’ I was like, ‘That’s right, that ball’s no more.'”
It was De La Cruz’s fifteenth homer of the time, with Statcast projecting it voyaged 425 feet with 114.1 mph leave speed.
“It’s Elly being Elly,” Benson said. “Some of the time he just nonchalantly runs and gets a triple with, similar to, no work and afterward hits a 114 [mph] homer. It’s wonderful. No other person is truly doing that, however Elly is.”
David Bell on Elly De La Cruz’s big game in New York
The Reds needed all of the runs as a buffer. Ashcraft worked five scoreless innings but couldn’t retire any of his three batters in the Yankees’ three-run sixth inning. Aaron Judge’s homer to left field against Sam Moll in the seventh inning made it a one-run game.
Fernando Cruz and closer Alexis Díaz protected the lead with perfect innings in the eighth and ninth, respectively. It was the 18th save of the season for Díaz and his 11th in a row.
Will Benson gives a young Yankees fan a foul ball
De La Cruz became the first Reds player in the franchise’s history and the third player in AL/NL history to hit at least 15 homers with 40 or more steals in the club’s first 85 games of a season. It was also done by Ronald Acuña Jr. in 2023 and twice by Rickey Henderson in 1986 and 1990.
“It’s fun to watch him play, especially when he’s hitting his stride and he’s on,” Ashcraft said. “That’s a dangerous player at the plate and in the field.”
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