Remember roughly five minutes ago when Sal Stewart’s start to the season was the talk of at least one particular corner of the baseball world?
To be a bit more transparent, Sal’s still swatting the heck out of the baseball for the Cincinnati Reds. He even doubled and scored a run in the Reds series opening victory over the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night in Great American Ball Park. But as the Reds rose up to a 7-2 win, it became a little bit evident just how red-hot his teammate over at shortstop has been so far this season, too.
Elly De La Cruz homered as part of a 3-hit day, driving in 4 runs to lead the Reds on the night. In the process, he actually bumped his average up to .291 for the season – just ahead of Stewart’s .290 mark – and his homer was a team-leading 10th. Not to be outdone, he even swiped a pair of bags on the night to overtake Stewart for the team lead, 8 to 7, in a game that had all of his talents on full display.
And when I say ‘all of them,’ I truly mean all of them.
WOW, ELLY, WOW. @ellylacocoa18 pic.twitter.com/OsYPdSBgF6
Elly gets to take home tonight’s Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game after a performance that truly showed why he’s one of baseball’s great five-tool talents.
Spencer Steer hit a big 2-run homer early as part of his great current run. He entered play tonight with an .822 OPS and 4 dingers over his previous 21 games, and tonight’s dinger followed that very same path.
Chase Burns, at times, looked a little less than ‘brilliant’ tonight yet a quick look at the final box score shows just how good he can still be when not at his absolute best. He scattered 7 hits across his 6.0 IP, allowing a pair of earned runs, but he fanned 9 while walking a lone Rockie on the night.
Nate Lowe got the start (against a lefty) and chipped in with a 2-hit night and drove in a run. He’s a proven regular who puts together excellent at-bats and is playing for a legitimate contract next fall – I really don’t see how you don’t keep him in the lineup in some form and fashion just about every single day going forward.
The Dane Myers acquisition continues to look quite brilliant. He started against a LHP again – as he is wont to do – and scored 3 runs while being on-base all over the place on the night.
Brandon Williamson will look to get right with the start on Wednesday when these two clubs meet again. First pitch is once again set for 6:40 PM ET.