Elly De La Cruz is on a tear during the first month of his MLB career.
The Cincinnati Reds rookie phenom produced a scene straight from a movie on Friday against the Atlanta Braves. De La Cruz led off the second inning with a double, took Atlanta pitcher AJ Smith-Shawver deep for a two-run blast in the third inning, and singled in another run in the fifth inning. As a result, the 21-year-old came up to the plate in the sixth inning needing only a triple to hit for the cycle.
You can probably guess what happened next. The superhuman De La Cruz got his triple … and got it in the most electrifying way possible.
De La Cruz got ahold of a Ben Heller changeup and shot it into the gap in right-center. While it would be a routine double for most, De La Cruz turned on the jets and high-tailed it to third base, easily beating the relay throw to secure the cycle.
Check it out (with an incredible call from the Reds broadcast as well.)
It was historic for De La Cruz in a number of ways. He becomes the youngest player since 1972 to hit for the cycle as well as the first Reds player to do so since 1989. And oh yeah, he only needed six innings to do it.
De La Cruz and the Reds are the best story in baseball right now. Since calling up De La Cruz on June 6, Cincinnati is 13-2 with an active 12-game winning streak. They are suddenly now leading the NL Central division at 41-35, a game ahead of the second-place Milwaukee Brewers.
For De La Cruz, who is batting an insane .367 with a 1.091 OPS to kick off his career, it was only fitting that he completed the cycle with a triple. He is already proving himself to be one of the fastest players in the sport and recently had another moment where he scored despite running through a stop sign from the third base coach.
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