Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Drills two homers in win Tuesday
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De La Cruz went 3-for-6 with two home runs, five RBI, one stolen base and three runs scored in Tuesday's 12-6 win over the Rays.
De La Cruz's fingerprints were all over this offensive outburst for Cincinnati. Batting right-handed, he smacked a two-run homer off Steven Matz in the first inning. De La Cruz stole his sixth base of the season in the sixth and later took position player Ben Williamson deep from the left side of the plate in the ninth. De La Cruz hit five homers off left-handed pitching all of last season and has already matched that total in 2026. The 24-year-old is slashing .276/.343/571 with eight home runs, 18 RBI, 21 runs scored, six stolen bases and a 10:31 BB:K across 108 plate appearances.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Homers again Wednesday
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De La Cruz went 1-for-4 with a solo home run, a walk and two runs scored in Wednesday's 8-3 win over the Giants.
De La Cruz continued his recent surge, taking Tyler Mahle deep for a 442-foot solo shot in the fourth inning for his sixth home run of the season. It was also the 24-year-old's third homer in his last five games, a stretch in which he's gone 8-for-19 with five RBI. The dynamic shortstop appears to be settling into a groove at the plate after a somewhat uneven start.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Another right-handed homer
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De La Cruz went 2-for-5 with a home run, three RBI and an additional run scored in Sunday's 9-6 loss to the Angels.
The switch-hitting De La Cruz popped a three-run homer in the ninth inning batting right-handed off lefty Drew Pomeranz. Four of his five home runs this season have come from the right side in only 22 at-bats. De La Cruz has historically been more productive from the left side (.844 OPS) than the right (.634).
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Goes deep Friday
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De La Cruz went 1-for-3 with a home run and a walk in Friday's loss to the Angels.
The Reds couldn't muster a lot of offense, though De La Cruz managed to launch his fourth homer of the season in the bottom of the eighth when Cincinnati was already down by nine runs. De La Cruz has been seeing the ball well to start the season and has hit safely in all but three of his 14 games, batting .236 with a .796 OPS, four homers, seven RBI, 10 runs scored, three steals and a 7:18 BB:K across 62 plate appearances.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Steals again
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De La Cruz went 0-for-3 with a walk, a run scored and a stolen base in Wednesday's 7-4 loss to the Marlins.
De La Cruz walked, stole a base and scored a run in the first inning. After failing to record a steal in the first eight games, De La Cruz has stolen a base in three of the last four contests while going 4-for-15 with a double during that span.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Homers against lefty
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De La Cruz went 1-for-4 with a solo home run in Friday's 5-3 win over the Rangers.
De La Cruz took left-hander MacKenzie Gore deep in the sixth inning to give the Reds a brief lead. It was the switch hitter's third home run of the season and second as a right-handed batter against a lefty. Historically, De La Cruz has been more productive from the left side (.846 OPS) than the right (.616). Of his 63 career home runs, only 15 have come when batting from the right side.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Swats home run in win
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De La Cruz went 1-for-4 with two walks and a solo home run in Saturday's 6-5 extra-innings win over the Red Sox.
De La Cruz clubbed his first home run of the season in the fifth inning to give Cincinnati a 5-3 lead. The shortstop, who clouted 20-plus home runs in each of his first two full MLB seasons, is looking to rebound from a second-half dip in production in 2025. To that end, Reds manager Terry Francona stated it was an organizational goal to keep De La Cruz fresh, so he may get more rest this season.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Not playing in WBC
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The Reds did not give De La Cruz permission to play in the World Baseball Classic, C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic reports.
De La Cruz wanted to represent the Dominican Republic, but Cincy has lingering concerns about a quad injury that appeared to limit him over the second half of the 2025 season. The shortstop, who still played all 162 regular-season games, experienced a second-half dip last year after a strong first half. Reds manager Terry Francona acknowledged the need to find ways to keep De La Cruz fresh in 2026, and the trade of Gavin Lux will allow starters to rotate through DH and get breaks from playing the field, per Rosencrans.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Will remain at shortstop in 2026
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The Reds plan to keep De La Cruz at shortstop next season, Charlie Goldsmith of Fox 19 Now Cincinnati reports.
De La Cruz has led baseball in errors in each of his two full seasons as the Reds' starting shortstop. After grading out at plus-14 in Outs Above Average in 2024, per Baseball Savant, he came in at minus-3 in 2025. The inconsistency on defense from De La Cruz has led to speculation that he could move to the outfield, but there are no plans for a position switch at this point. The Reds do plan to give De La Cruz more days off and more starts at designated hitter in 2026, per Goldsmith, with the idea that it will help keep him fresh after he struggled offensively and defensively in the second half in 2025.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Logs steal in third straight game
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De La Cruz went 1-for-4 with a stolen base in Friday's 3-0 loss to the Athletics.
De La Cruz has swiped a bag in three straight games, and he's hit safely in five straight. Prior to this recent uptick in steals, he had logged just one theft on two attempts over a 25-game span from Aug. 11 to Sept. 8. The shortstop is up to 35 steals on the year, matching his rookie-year total but well behind the 67 he posted over 160 games in 2024. De La Cruz has added a .266/.333/.439 slash line, 19 home runs, 82 RBI and 97 runs scored across 147 contests in 2025.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Swipes bag in win
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De La Cruz went 2-for-5 with a walk, one RBI, two runs scored and a stolen base in Sunday's 14-8 win over the Pirates.
De La Cruz opened the scoring with an RBI single in the third inning before stealing his 31st base of the season in the seventh. It was the superstar's first two-hit game of August, as he broke out of a 5-for-32 slump through the month's first eight contests. For the year, he's slashing .277/.353/.467 with 19 home runs, 74 RBI, 82 runs scored and the aforementioned 31 steals across 513 plate appearances.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Plays hero in Saturday's win
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De La Cruz went 2-for-4 with a walk, a double, two RBI and a stolen base in Saturday's 6-2 win over the Rays.
The star shortstop broke open a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the seventh inning with a two-out, bases-loaded single off Garrett Cleavinger. De La Cruz hasn't homered since June 23, but he's provided plenty of fantasy value otherwise, slashing .327/.416/.418 during his 26-game power drought with seven steals, 12 RBI and 16 runs.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Swats 17th homer in loss
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De La Cruz went 2-for-5 with a triple and a two-run home run in Saturday's loss against the Cardinals.
De La Cruz was thrown out at home in the third inning while attempting to stretch a triple into an inside-the-park homer, but he made up for it with a towering blast in the seventh inning. The switch-hitting shortstop has been scorching hot in June, slashing .313/.413/.688 with 11 extra-base hits and 12 RBI over his last 18 games. He entered the month with a .763 OPS and has raised it to .838.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Homers in fourth straight contest
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De La Cruz went 3-for-5 with a two-run homer, an additional RBI and three total runs scored in Sunday's 6-4 win over Detroit.
De La Cruz has home runs in four straight contests and at least one hit in his last six -- he's gone 12-for-26 (.461) with six extra-base hits in that span. De La Cruz's recent hot stretch has boosted his slash line to .273/.352/.498 with 16 homers, 50 RBI, 57 runs scored and 20 stolen bases through 310 plate appearances this year.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Nabs steal no. 20
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De La Cruz went 1-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base in Tuesday's 1-0 win over the Guardians.
The 23-year-old shortstop has slowed down on the basepaths of late, attempting a steal in only three of his last 15 contests, but De La Cruz is still up to 20 pilfers on the season, putting him sixth in MLB behind league leader Jose Caballero's 25. De La Cruz has hardly been quiet during that 15-game stretch, however, slashing .294/.410/.569 with five doubles, three homers, six RBI and 14 runs.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Fills stat sheet in win
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De La Cruz went 2-for-3 with a home run, a walk, four RBI, a stolen base and an additional run scored in Saturday's 6-4 win over the Cubs
De La Cruz started the scoring with a two-run home run in the first inning and then broke the game open with a two-run single in the fifth. While the 23-year-old is slashing just .200/.284/.388 in May, he's produced two homers, seven RBI, eight runs scored and three steals over his past 10 games. On the year, he's slashing .248/.322/.417 with nine long balls, 37 RBI, 35 runs scored and 17 steals across 230 plate appearances.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Swats timely home run
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De La Cruz went 2-for-4 with a solo home run in Tuesday's loss to the White Sox.
De La Cruz led off the bottom of the ninth with a solo home run to tie the game. That's now two home runs in the last three games for De La Cruz, who had previously gone 18 straight games without leaving the yard. Tuesday marked just the third time in his last 13 games that De La Cruz did not strike out, as his above-average strikeout tendencies have carried over from prior seasons thus far.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Brings home four runs
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De La Cruz went 1-for-4 with a three-run homer and an additional RBI in Saturday's 13-9 win over the Astros.
De La Cruz -- who entered Saturday's game 0-for-8 with four strikeouts over his prior two games -- put the Reds on the board with a three-run home run off Lance McCullers in the first inning, and the shortstop tacked on another run in the same frame on an RBI groundout. De La Cruz has struggled at the plate in May, going 6-for-39 (.154 average) with a 31.1 percent strikeout rate.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Steals bag in loss
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De La Cruz went 2-for-5 with a stolen base and a run scored in Tuesday's loss to Atlanta.
De La Cruz notched multiple hits for the sixth time in his last 12 games, though he has only two extra-base hits and three RBI over that span. He scored the Reds' only run after leading off the eighth with a single and stealing second before eventually coming home. De La Cruz now sits alone in third place in the majors with 14 steals, trailing Oneil Cruz and Luis Robert, who lead with 15.
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Reds' Elly De La Cruz: Cracks three-run shot vs. Baltimore
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De La Cruz went 1-for-5 with a three-run homer in Friday's 8-3 win over the Orioles.
De La Cruz struck out in three of his five at-bats Friday, but he put the Reds on the board in the third inning when he took the first pitch he saw from Cade Povich deep to center field for a 400-foot, three-run long shot. It was De La Cruz's fourth homer of the season, and his 21 RBI are tied with Pete Alonso and Kyle Tucker for second most in the National League behind Wilmer Flores (23).
