WASHINGTON — It took less than two games in the majors for Elly De La Cruz to belt his first tape-measure home run, 15 to pull off the Cincinnati Reds’ first cycle since 1989.
And it took all of 26 games – as in Wednesday night in Washington – for the other guys to start trying to play psychological games with the Reds rookie.
“And it came back and bit them in the tail,” teammate Graham Ashcraft said.
Play was stopped for several confounding minutes as De La Cruz prepared to lead off the Reds second inning of Wednesday’s 9-2 victory because Nationals manager Davey Martinez called the umpires’ attention to the strange-looking attachment to the knob of De La Cruz’s bat.
"It wasn't a big issue, I just wanted to know what that was,” Martinez said, adding he noticed it at near the end of De La Cruz’s 4-for-4 game Tuesday – but “I didn’t want to do it after an at-bat.”
What Elly De La Cruz actually puts on his bat
The attachment is a rubberized sleeve that normally houses a swing-tracking sensor that hitters sometimes use in the batting cage. De La Cruz said he’s used the sensor-less sleeve in games since 2021 in the minors because it’s comfortable, and Reds manager David Bell said the Reds proactively got the sleeve approved for game use for De La Cruz in the majors before he was promoted last month.
But Wednesday’s umpire crew had no record of it, and when they called the replay office in New York for clarification, there was a lengthy delay in confirming that approval, Bell and ump crew chief Adrian Johnson said afterward (Johnson through a pool reporter).
Johnson said the crew decided to order De La Cruz to remove the sleeve for that at-bat in order to avoid holding the game up any longer. He struck out swinging at a 3-2 pitch.
When he came to the plate again in the third, Bell conferred with the crew, which had been informed by then that the sleeve was legal, and he used it the rest of the game.
That included a 455-foot home run in the fifth, followed by a pair of doubles – with a pause just long enough after connecting on the upper-deck home run to look back at the Reds dugout, hold up the handle of his bat and tap the knob two or three times.
“It’s just to tell everybody the knob is not the reason why I’m doing a good job,” he said through the team interpreter. “It’s because of all the work I’m putting out there.”
Even if it looked a little like biting the Nats in the tail.
“I love the way he plays the game,” Martinez said. “I didn’t like his antics after he hit the home run. We can do without that. He’s only got two weeks in the big leagues. But he’s gonna be a good player.”
Elly De La Cruz is a generational talent
Three innings later, De La Cruz doubled to right, stole third and scored on Jake Fraley’s blooper to left.
“There’s nothing against anybody,” said De La Cruz, who already has 11 steals to go with his 14 extra-base hits. “I’m just here to do the job.”
Whether the Nationals’ query into the bat was a failed attempt at gamesmanship, Bell said he had no problem with it. “I’m just glad we got it cleared up.”
As for the way the kid responded the rest of the game, the manager said it didn’t surprise him.
“He plays with a lot of emotion and joy,” Bell said. “But he’s great at channeling that properly, too. It’s a long season, and things happen where you can take that energy and [use] it as fuel to play well.
“I thought it was impressive how he did that tonight.”
Impressive? Wednesday’s home run wasn’t even the longest in the young career of De La Cruz, who’s actually got four weeks in the big leagues. That was the 458-foot shot to the back of the right-field bleachers at home on June 7.
“Everytime this guy hits a ball that hard, just a jaw-dropping moment for everybody,” said Ashcraft, a big beneficiary of the fireworks after pitching six strong innings. “The guy just has so much power it’s ridiculous.”
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