CINCINNATI – What's the prescription to shake off a crushing loss the previous night? For the Reds on Saturday against the Cubs, it was a quick dose of power from Elly De La Cruz.
In a 6-4 victory at Great American Ball Park that snapped a three-game losing streak and evened the three-game series, De La Cruz reached base three times and notched four RBIs. His two-run home run in the first inning set the right tone against first-place Chicago.
“He’s instant runs," manager Terry Francona said. "Other teams hit a lot of home runs. That’s not necessarily how we’re built. But it’s nice to have two in the first without having to dive into three different bases. It helps.”
Batting in the bottom of the first inning after Santiago Espinal drew a one-out walk against Colin Rea, De La Cruz clobbered a 2-0 fastball over the middle of the plate and launched it into the right-field seats for a 2-0 Reds lead.
“I saw the pitch I was looking for and I executed," said De La Cruz, who has two career homers vs. Rea. "I haven’t been there [hitting] the last couple of days but I’ve been feeling really good.”
De La Cruz was 1-for-12 in Cincinnati's last three losses.
“The walk to Espinal is what hurts you. We can’t walk him," Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. "He makes it hard. He fouls off pitches and does a nice job with it. But you can’t walk him right there. And De La Cruz, he’s a good hitter, and he’s going to do some damage. You limit it by limiting the baserunners in front of him. We couldn’t do that today.”
Batting .248 with a .739 OPS, De La Cruz leads the Reds with nine homers in 53 games. It was his fourth game this year with at least four RBIs. While he's often been steady and cut down on his strikeouts, the switch-hitter hasn't had too many eye-popping offensive performances that were often seen in 2023 and 2024.
When they come, they're certainly welcomed.
“The kid shows up ready to go, he’s a great teammate," Reds starting pitcher Andrew Abbott said. "He’s great off the field. Wish him nothing but the best, he deserves every bit of it. He’s meant for those moments and it’s great to see him cash them in.”
Abbott and the Reds had their lead extended to 3-1 after four innings before three more runs were added in the fifth.
TJ Friedl led off with a single to center field and took second base on an errant pick-off throw. Espinal provided a key moment with a push bunt to the right side for a single that put runners on the corners, then went to second on a wild pitch. That set up De La Cruz, who delivered a two-run single on the ground into right-center field.
“My job is to make [Friedl] get into scoring position so Elly can get him in, hit a homer," Espinal said. "That’s what I did today. Friedl was on second base. I was just trying to move him over, trying to put the ball in play and Elly came through.”
De La Cruz stole second base -- his 17th steal of the season -- and scored on Spencer Steer's two-out RBI single through the middle that extended his career-high hitting streak to 12 games.
"It’s nice to score first and kind of tack on a little bit because you know [the Cubs] are dangerous offensively," Francona said.
Abbott pitched 5 2/3 innings and allowed one earned run on six hits and two walks with two strikeouts. His only blemish was giving up Justin Turner's leadoff homer to left field in the top of the third inning.
The add-on runs proved pivotal as the Cubs scored one run in each of the last three innings against Cincinnati's bullpen. Emilio Pagán gave up a leadoff homer to Carson Kelly to open the ninth but held on to record his 13th save.
It was important for the Reds to bounce back following a stinging 13-6 loss that came after having a 4-0 lead and a 6-2 lead heading into a six-run Cubs seventh inning that featured Pete Crow-Armstrong's go-ahead grand slam. Third-place Cincinnati (26-27) is 5 1/2 games back.
“Yesterday is yesterday. We can’t worry about it," Espinal said. "We know what we’re capable of. We had great at-bats yesterday. We put some runs in there. Not everything is going to work out perfect. We came today with the same mentality that we have to go get the W. That’s what we did.”