By Hal McCoy
This is how it is going so far this season for the baseball-blessed Cincinnati Reds.
The new and improved Colorado Rockies, fresh off a three-game sweep of the New York Mets, put runners on base in all nine innings Tuesday night in Great American Ball Park.
They put their leadoff man on base in six of the nine ininings.
And they lost by five runs.
With Elly De La Cruz put together a personal one-game highligt reel, offensively and defensively, the Reds recorded a 7-2 victory.
The first-place Reds have won eight of 10 and 10 of 13. And they’ve won the first game of a series eight times in their first 10 series.
When Spencer Steer blasted a two-out, two-run home run in the first inning to give the Reds a 3-0 lead, the outcome was a foregone conclusion.
The Reds are 13-1 when they score first and they’ve scored 25 runs in the first inning.
De La Cruz? He did everything on this night but fill the Gatorade container.
Offensively? He was 3 for 4, drove in four runs, stole two bases and ripped his 10th home run, a two-run opposite-field drive into the left field seats.
The homer came in the eighth and was much-needed because it was only 4-2 at the time and the Rockies kept putting men on base.
Of his 10 home runs, five have come batting left-handed and five batting right-handed, most of them to the opposite field.
“Right-handed he has been so much better this season,” said manager Tito Francona. “When you drive the ball the other way, you’re fundamentally very sound.
“Guys like he and Sal are so strong when they hit the ball the other way they get rewarded,” he added
Defensively? De La Cruz made two ESPN Top Ten plays.
The first one came in the second inning with one out and a runner on first. Kyle Karros chopped one over third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes and was headed for left field.
De La Cruz roamed to his right, backhanded the ball and in whip-lash fashion zipped the throw to first base.
The second one came in the seventh inning with two on and one out. Hunter Goodman drilled one at De La Cruz. It took a high hop and nearly hit De La Cruz in the face. He flicked his glove up to the ball and started a 6-4-3 inning-ending double play.
“He is unbelievable, he is ridiculous,” said Reds starting pitcher Chase Burns. “Best player in the world.”
And manager Tito Francona was just as appreciative of De La Cruz as Burns.
“The play he made going to his right, that is as phyically impressive as you are ever going to see,” he said. “I thought the play that might have been more impressive was the double play ball. That ball probably should have hit him in the Adam’s Apple.”
Of his offense, De La Cruz says he is benefitting this season batting ahead of rookie Sal Stewart because he is seeing better pitches to hit.
“I don’t think nobdy wants to pitch to him right now,” said De La Cruz. “He is really hot and he knows alot.”
It seems as if De La Cruz and Stewart are in friendly competition and they feed off each other’s successes.
“We furnish a lot of energy,” said De La Cruz. “That’s a good energy. No competition. I want him to hit a bunch of homers. And we’re just going to keep doing it.”
And the two defensive dandies?
Of his first one, he said, “You know, we practice those plays. That was difficult, but we work hard for it.”
Of the double play, he added, “That was difficult. High hop, but we got it.”
Burns pitched six innings and gave up seven hits, but only two runs and no walks. And his nose-diving slider and shoulder-high heater — really a scorcher — had nine Rockies doing the walk of shame back to the dugout after strikeouts.
When he struck out TJ Rumfield to end the first with a fittingly 100 miles per hour fastball, it was Burns’ 100th career strikeout.
But he had to work hard to earn his third win against one loss. He had runners on base all six innings and the leadoff hitter was on base four times.
But the first run came with one out in the third with nobody on base, a home run by Edourdo Julien. Julien also drove in the other run on a single in the fifth.
The leadoff man was on base in the second, but the next three went down.
Rumfield led the fourth with a double but Burns once again went 1-2-3 after the hit, the last two via strikeouts.
Rumfield led the sixth with a single and the Rockies had runners on third and second with one out. Burns struck out Kyle Karros and ended his night by getting a foul pop from Ezequiel Tovar.
It continued after Burns departed. Graham Ashcraft gave up two one-out hits in the seventh, then De La Cruz turned the nasty-hop double play.
Tony Santillan gave up a walk and a hit with two outs, then Tovar swung at a pitch that bounced in the dirt for strike three.
Brock Burke gave up a leadoff single in the ninth, the sixth Rockies leadoff hitter to reach base, but retired the next three, two on strikeouts.
For the night, the Rockies were 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10. They struck out 12 times.
“Burns left a couple of breaking balls up that they hit,” said Francona. “But then when they had runners in scoring position he took it upon himself to go for the strikeout. Know it, but doing it. . .he kinda reached back and threw some really good sliders.”