Elly De La Cruz hit halfway to the cycle by the fifth inning on Tuesday.
De La Cruz homered over the left-center field wall at Yankee Stadium extending Cincinnati’s lead to 5-0 as the Reds played in New York for the first game of a three-contest series. It’s the first time the Reds are visiting the Yankees, who’ve met Cincinnati in three World Series matchups, during the Fourth of July.
De La Cruz added to his fourth-inning triple to march halfway to a cycle, something he completed a little more than a year ago.
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According to Sarah Langs of MLB.com, De La Cruz joined Hall of Famer and Boston Red Sox outfielder Ted Williams as the two players since at least 1901 to have five games with at least one triple and home run in their first 185 career games. Tuesday’s 5-4 Reds win marked game No. 183 for De La Cruz.
The Reds hadn’t had a player hit for the cycle since Eric Davis in 1989 prior to De La Cruz accomplishing the feat less than one month into his Major League career against the Atlanta Braves on June 23, 2023.
This time around, De La Cruz joined a New York rival on his way to a 2-for-5 performance with two RBIs and as many runs scored in his first game at Yankee Stadium.
According to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Williams also hit for the cycle in his career coming in the second game of a doubleheader against the St. Louis Browns on July 21, 1946.
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De La Cruz currently leads MLB with 40 stolen bases. He’s already surpassed the 35 swiped bags he nabbed as a rookie in 2023. According to the Cincinnati Reds, De La Cruz entered June 6 — the one-year anniversary of his Major League debut — with 67 stolen bases and 57 extra-base hits in his career, both numbers of which “no other player since 1900 collected as many as 65 steals and 50 XBH within 1 year of his first game in the majors (Courtesy Elias).”
Cincinnati is 3-2 on its current road trip. The Reds entered July following a series split at St. Louis and will round out the first half with a 10-game homestand.
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