Elly De La Cruz talks about home run and victory over Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds SS Elly De La Cruz hit his 20th home run of the season Sept. 19, his first since July 31, to help the Reds to a victory over the Cubs.
A Lyft driver in Cincinnati already had the air conditioning jacked up high by late morning during a quick trip across the river Friday, Sept. 19.
“Let me know if you want me to adjust that,” he said.
“Nope. Perfect,” said the voice from the back seat. “When’s it supposed to start cooling off around here, anyway?”
“Dunno,” the driver said with a laugh. “It’s been really hot for a while.”
Hot? He might not have had enough freon in that minivan’s air conditioning unit for how hot it got down by the river a few hours later as the Cincinnati Reds weathered a back-and-forth game against the Chicago Cubs for a 7-4 win that kept them in a National League playoff chase that is only getting hotter with barely a week left in the season.
The Reds led early, trailed by the sixth and needed back-to-back home runs from Spencer Steer and Elly De La Cruz in the sixth to take the lead that held up for the win.
The Reds’ third straight win meant they kept pace with the New York Mets in the race for the NL’s final playoff berth. They trail the Mets by two games with eight to play. The Mets beat the Nationals 12-6 Friday night.
“I’m not a math major, but I know we need to win,” manager Terry Francona said. “Our guys know that.”
Here’s some math from this night: Five home runs equaled six of the seven runs for the Reds.
Steer’s two-run shot just ahead of De La Cruz in the sixth was his second of the game and 20th of the season, making him the first Red to hit 20 this year.
De La Cruz became the second when he followed Steer in the seventh by clearing the fence for the first time since July 31 – just EDLC’s second homer since June 23.
“We’re not a team that ordinarily lives with that, but you’ll certainly take it,” Francona said. “I mean, Steer, it’s now a couple games in the last week he’s kind of put us on his back.”
Francona referred to Steer’s five-RBI game against the Cardinals on Wednesday after missing two games because of a rib issue high in his rib cage near the back.
“It was nice to see Elly drive a ball the other way and get rewarded for it,” Francona said. “If we can get him hot, boy, would that really give us a big lift.”
The Reds have two games left against the Cubs before finishing the season with three at home against the Pirates and three on the road against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Asked before the game what he does differently now that so few games remain with two games of ground to make up, Francona said:
“It’s like it is every day. We need to try to win. I don’t know that you can change your spots. I don’t know that that helps.
“That’s why we try from Day One to put importance on every day,” he added. “Because you can’t just all of a sudden say, “Ah, this is important, we gotta flip a button.’ You can’t do that.”
Wait a minute. If it wasn’t math, what was Francona’s major at the University of Arizona?
“Baseball,” he said.