The Cincinnati Reds are the hottest team in baseball at the moment. Winners of 12 straight games, the Reds now sit atop the NL Central with a 41-35 record.
And a huge reason for that streak is the play of uber prospect Elly De La Cruz. Since joining the Reds earlier this month, the club is 13-2 with the youngster slashing .361/.418/.656 during that span. With 17 runs, 3HRs, 10RBIs, and 7 stolen bases, De La Cruz is doing it all for Cincinnati.
His power and speed was on full display Friday night as he became the youngest MLB player to hit for the cycle in 51 years as the Reds narrowly edged out the Atlanta Braves 11-10.
The 21 year old doubled to open up the 2nd inning, blasted a 2-run HR in the 3rd, singled in the 5th, and then completed the cycle with a triple in the 6th inning. He would finish the night with 3 runs, 1HR, 4RBIs, 1SB and an .800 avg. Not bad for someone with less than a month of Major League experience under his belt.
De La Cruz is only the 3rd player since 1901 to hit for the cycle within their first 15 games at the MLB level, and the first Reds player to hit for the cycle since Eric Davis in 1989. Only 7 players in the storied history of the Reds dating back to 1881 have managed to hit for the cycle.
“I can’t really put it into words right now,” De La Cruz said through an interpreter after the game. “I’m happy and excited.”
“I think this might be the best regular-season game that I’ve been a part of,” Reds manager David Bell said. “I think a lot had to do with the atmosphere in the ballpark. Both teams played a great game.”
A rare sellout crowd of 43,000 fans packed the Great American Ball Park last night. A scene which had become increasingly rare over the last few seasons due to poor on field play from the team. In fact, a record low attendance of only 7,375 fans came as recently as April 17th.
Expectations for the team were low heading into the season. The Reds scuffled to a 62-100 record last year, tied with Pittsburgh for the 3rd worst record across major league baseball.
But with the team seeing contributions from a variety of their top prospects including De La Cruz, Matt McLain and pitcher Andrew Abbott, Cincinnati has surged up the standings, and now hold a 1.5 game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers for the division crown. And the scariest part for opponents is that one of their top prospects remains at AAA Louisville due to a log jam in Cincinnati.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand, acquired from Minnesota last year as part of the Tyler Mahle trade, has 17HRs, 49RBIs, 48 runs scored and sports a .333 batting average across 216 ABs this season with the Bats. While he’s typically an infielder, the Reds have been having him take reps in the outfield in an attempt to find somewhere to put him in their MLB lineup.
Cincinnati will look to extend their winning streak to 13 games today when they take on the Braves at 4:10pm ET.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Rick A Dikeman. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.