INSTANT REACTION: Elly De La Cruz Homers, Reds Beat Cubs 6-4

CINCINNATI -- It wasn't easy, but the Cincinnati Reds hung on to beat the Chicago Cubs 6-4 Saturday at Great American Ball Park.

Now at 26-27, the Reds evened the weekend series against the Cubs and will go for the series win and attempt to get back to .500 on Sunday.

Elly De La Cruz was explosive on the plate and on the basepaths Sunday, delievring a home run, four RBIs and a stolen base.

Andrew Abbott turned in a great effort on the mound, and the Reds bullpen finished off the Cubs with some hard-earned outs in the late innings.

Let's look at the key takeaways from Saturday's 6-4 Reds win.

Here are our takeaways from Saturday's 6-4 Reds win.

Elly De La Cruz Breaks Out

We've been waiting, seemingly, a while for the Reds shortstop to have a game like he had on Saturday. De La Cruz wasted no time making his presence felt, lining a two-run home-run to right field in the bottom of the first inning. It was De La Cruz's ninth home run of the season.

Then in the bottom of the fifth, De La Cruz delivered a two-run single to center to increase the Reds lead to 5-1.

De La Cruz had four total RBIs on Saturday, his highest total in a game since May 10th at Houston. The 23-year-old also had a stolen base on Saturday, his first steal in six days.

This is the performance from De La Cruz that Reds fans envision. It's what they hope they get to see when they go to the ballpark, watch the games on TV or listen on radio. More of these performances will help the Reds not only get back to .500, but also stay above that mark this season.

Andrew Abbott Turns in a Great Effort on the Mound

Abbott remains undefeated at 4-0 following Saturday's start. The 25-year-old left-hander pitched 5 2/3 innings and kept the Cubs' bats silenced to one run on six hits with just two walks.

Winning his second straight start, Abbott threw 83 pitches with 53 going for strikes. Abbott's ERA is 0.70 in the month of May, a month where his 2-0 with 25 strikeouts against just nine walks.

Bullpen Gets Hard-Earned Outs

Less than 24 hours after giving up 11 earned runs in five innings, the Reds' bullpen managed to get 10 outs and hold off a Cubs comeback attempt on Saturday.

Graham Ashcraft, Tony Santillan and Emilio Pagan, the presumed Reds big three, a combined 71 pitches acorss 3 1/3 innings with 45 thrown for strikes. Pagan worked around a leadoff home run in the top of the ninth to strike out two Cubs hitters and save his 10th game of the season.

Notes and observations

• The Reds scored six runs for the second straight game on Saturday, just the fourth time this season they have accomplished that.
• The Reds went 3-10 with runners in scoring position.
• Cincinnati pitching held the Cubs to 0-9 with runners in scoring position.

On Deck

Can the Reds finally win a rubber game in a three-game series? That's what they will attempt to do Sunday afternoon when Nick Lodolo (4-4, 3.22 ERA) takes the mound against Cubs right-hander Ben Brown (3-3, 5.44 ERA)

Sunday's game will get underway at 1:40 E.T. on FanDuel Sports Network Cincinnati and 700WLW.