Elly De La Cruz continues to be the greatest show on dirt.
The Cincinnati Reds phenom was at it again on Saturday against the Toronto Blue Jays. De La Cruz gave the fans their money’s worth in the fourth inning when he got around on a Chris Bassitt changeup. He lifted the pitch out into deep right field, and it spelunked off the wall before being misplayed by Jays right fielder Cavan Biggio. Upon tracking down the ball, Biggio missed literally every single cutoff man with his throw, overshooting second baseman Santiago Espinal and then pulling it just out of the reach of a diving Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
You knew that the Roadrunner-esque De La Cruz was going to make the Blue Jays pay for the foul-up, and that he did. By the time that Jays third baseman Matt Chapman tracked down the errant ball, De La Cruz was sliding into the plate with a Little League home run.
Take a look at the electrifying play.
Elly De La Cruz is ELECTRIC!! pic.twitter.com/3qXyyRcwPJ
— MLB (@MLB) August 19, 2023
The 21-year-old rookie De La Cruz was only officially credited with a triple on the play (with an error being charged to Biggio). But he still got an RBI for his troubles (with a runner on first at the time) and managed to tie the game at 3 in the most riveting way possible.
Little League home runs, which we have seen multiple of this MLB season alone, are almost always the product of some really shoddy defense. While that was also the case here, having De La Cruz (who is already proving to be one of the sport’s biggest speed demons) in the equation certainly multiplied the overall entertainment value.
