CINCINNATI – The Yankees' lineup against the Reds on Monday night at Great American Ball Park featured something not seen in Cincinnati for 47 years.
Four former Most Valuable Player Award winners.
New York's top four of its order featured MVPs Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. In 1978, Cincinnati had its four MVPs in Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Joe Morgan and George Foster.
The 2025 Reds lacked MVPs, but they had Elly De La Cruz. The star shortstop provided three hits and three RBIs, including the tying run with a triple during a three-run fourth inning and a home run in a 6-1 victory. On the second anniversary of his hitting for the cycle vs. the Braves, he came a double shy vs. New York.
"He can do everything," Judge said. "He can hit, he can throw, he's got the wheels, he's got the power – we saw it tonight. He's a total package. It's fun to watch a guy like that in the middle of your lineup; just electric. You don't want to see him come up with guys on base, or honestly, in any situation."
As the Reds rallied in the bottom of the fourth against Yankees starter Allan Winans, De La Cruz hit a drive off the base of the center-field wall. Matt McLain scored from first base, and De La Cruz motored at 30.5 feet per second into third base with a headfirst slide for his RBI triple.
Spencer Steer's sacrifice fly to left field brought in De La Cruz – who stumbled briefly before another headfirst slide over the plate – with the go-ahead run.
“I actually love it. I love it. When he’s dirty, we’re good," manager Terry Francona said. "He can puke on the field all he wants.”
“When I’m dirty I like it. That means I did something good," De La Cruz said.
On Saturday in a loss at St. Louis, one inning after hitting a triple, De La Cruz threw up on the field from being overheated. Later, he also hit a homer.
“I need to take care of myself," De La Cruz said. "I drank too much water and that happened.”
After De La Cruz scored, Gavin Lux added a solo homer to right field for a 3-1 lead.
Batting with the bases loaded in the fifth inning and one out, De La Cruz hit an RBI single to right field to score Jake Fraley with an insurance run. Leading off the bottom of the eighth and batting right-handed, De La Cruz put the game away against lefty Tim Hill, hitting a 1-2 pitch the opposite way for a homer to right field – his team-leading 18th of the season.
De La Cruz, 23, is slashing .333/.416/.747 (33-for-99) with 10 homers and 29 runs scored over his past 27 games. Since May 24, his .747 slugging percentage is the second best in the Majors behind only Cal Raleigh (.762) among qualifiers.
“Even when he’s not hot, he can change the game in a heartbeat," Lux said. "He’s got as much talent as anybody in baseball. He’s not chasing anymore. He’s taking his walks. Teams are going to pitch around him. You circle his name when you come to play the Reds that this guy can’t beat you."
Judge quickly made it a 1-0 game with two outs in the first inning when he lifted a booming home run to the second deck in left field off Nick Lodolo. The Reds' starter exited after 4 1/3 innings with 94 pitches (65 strikes). With two on and one out in the fifth inning, Scott Barlow got Judge to fly out and Stanton to look at strike three to end the inning.
Yankees hitters went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position.
"That team especially, that they’re going to get on base for sure," Barlow said. "But limiting damage is huge, and not trying to create more by nibbling around the zone and just always being on attack mode. You’re going to give yourself the best opportunity by staying on the attack."
The Reds have won 11 of their past 16 games and improved to 41-38 amid a difficult stretch of schedule of playing mostly teams with better records – including the 45-33 Yankees. Earlier in the day, Cincinnati made a statement by bringing up top prospect Chase Burns to make his big league debut, despite only 13 pro starts, and eating $22.5 million by designating Jeimer Candelario for assignment.
“Everyone thinks he can help us win now, which is cool," Lux said. "It shows you that ownership and the front office, obviously we all believe in this group that it has what it takes to win a lot of games … it reinforces that they believe in us as well, which is pretty cool.”