The Cincinnati Reds beat the Washington Nationals on Wednesday by a score of 9-2, but the story goes so much deeper than the final score.
Early in the game, there was a weird sequence in which Nationals manager Davey Martinez asked to have the bat handle of Reds rookie Elly De La Cruz inspected.
It was ruled that De La Cruz couldn't use the handle, only to have it re-instated later in the game. De La Cruz later homered in the ball game, and did a celebration in which he pointed to the bat handle to essentially say "check it again."
You can watch the both the original sequence and the home run here.
After the game, Martinez told reporters that he didn't like the celebration from De La Cruz.
Nats manager Dave Martinez on Elly De La Cruz: “I didn’t like his antics after he hit the homer.”
Look, you may not like it, but in that case, De La Cruz has every right to celebrate. You called him out, you tried to take something from him, he succeeded anyways, and he's letting you know about it.
We see trash talk all the time in sports, and in this situation, I have no problem with it.
It was the fourth home run of the season for De La Cruz, who has been a sparkplug for the Reds resurgence this year.
He's hitting .318 since being called up.
The Reds are in first place in the National League Central at 48-39. They are 2.0 games up on the Milwaukee Brewers.
The two teams will play again on Thursday at 1:05 p.m. ET.
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