Remember roughly five minutes ago when Sal Stewart’s start to the season was the talk of at least one particular corner of the baseball world?
To be a bit more transparent, Sal’s still swatting the heck out of the baseball for the Cincinnati Reds. He even doubled and scored a run in the Reds series opening victory over the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night in Great American Ball Park. But as the Reds rose up to a 7-2 win, it became a little bit evident just how red-hot his teammate over at shortstop
has been so far this season, too.
Elly De La Cruz homered as part of a 3-hit day, driving in 4 runs to lead the Reds on the night. In the process, he actually bumped his average up to .291 for the season – just ahead of Stewart’s .290 mark – and his homer was a team-leading 10th. Not to be outdone, he even swiped a pair of bags on the night to overtake Stewart for the team lead, 8 to 7, in a game that had all of his talents on full display.
And when I say ‘all of them,’ I truly mean all of them.
Elly gets to take home tonight’s Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game after a performance that truly showed why he’s one of baseball’s great five-tool talents.
Other Notes
- Spencer Steer hit a big 2-run homer early as part of his great current run. He entered play tonight with an .822 OPS and 4 dingers over his previous 21 games, and tonight’s dinger followed that very same path.
- Chase Burns, at times, looked a little less than ‘brilliant’ tonight yet a quick look at the final box score shows just how good he can still be when not at his absolute best. He scattered 7 hits across his 6.0 IP, allowing a pair of earned runs, but he fanned 9 while walking a lone Rockie on the night.
- Nate Lowe got the start (against a lefty) and chipped in with a 2-hit night and drove in a run. He’s a proven regular who puts together excellent at-bats and is playing for a legitimate contract next fall – I really don’t see how you don’t keep him in the lineup in some form and fashion just about every single day going forward.
- The Dane Myers acquisition continues to look quite brilliant. He started against a LHP again – as he is wont to do – and scored 3 runs while being on-base all over the place on the night.
- Brandon Williamson will look to get right with the start on Wednesday when these two clubs meet again. First pitch is once again set for 6:40 PM ET.
