LAst week we kicked off this series and this week it feels like a bit of a repeat as once again we’re loking about Elly De La Cruz. If Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine have taught us anything it’s that everyone loves the long ball. Alright, perhaps that wasn’t exactly the takeaway from those two guys, but long home runs have been something people have talked about for over a hundred years. Only in the last decade or so, though, have we truly been able to measure their distance with *some* accuracy. Thanks to ball tracking in the big leagues we can compare 1-to-1 how far a baseball went. Every week for the next few months we’re going to be counting down the 10 longest home runs hit by the Cincinnati Reds in the 2025 season.

In 2025 the 9th longest home run of the Cincinnati Reds season came on May 13th and was hit by Elly De La Cruz against the Chicago White Sox.

The VideoThe Metrics Behind The Blast

Elly De La Cruz was 1-3 on the night as he entered this at-bat and he improved his night six pitches later with a big time home run.

Distance Metrics

Distance: 435 Feet

Reds Ranks: 9th

Major League Baseball Rank: 301st (tied)

Elly De La Cruz Rank: 5

Other Metrics

Launch Angle: 27°

Exit Velocity: 114.9 MPH

Bat Speed: 80.4 MPH

Reds Exit Velocity Rank (home runs only): 3rd (out of 167)

Reds Bat Speed Rank (home runs only): 3rd (of 157)

MLB Exit Velocity Rank (home runs only): 40th (out of 5544)

MLB Bat Speed Rank (home runs only): 454th (out of 5288)

The Story Behind The Blast

The Chicago White Sox scored a run in the 4th inning to take a 1-0 lead. That’s where the game remained entering the bottom of the 9th. Elly De La Cruz was set to lead off the inning. The White Sox sent Steven Wilson to the mound to try and pick up his first save of the season. In his previous outing, three days prior he was called on for the 7th inning and was holding a 1-0 lead and gave up a solo home run in Miami that tied the game up.  That was only the second run he had allowed on the year.

Wilson would have history repeat itself on this night. He and De La Cruz battled and had the count at 3-2 before he tried to get a sweeper by the Reds shortstop. As you saw above….. he did not. De La Cruz hit it about as hard as he can and in the blink of an eye the game was tied up as the ball landed three quarters of the way up the seats in right field to tie things up.

The White Sox would keep the Reds off of the board the rest of the way, though. And in the top of the 10th Cincinnati saw their chances of winning go by the wayside. Emilio Pagan, who threw a shutout 9th, returned to the mound for the 10th. He retired the first two batters of the inning but then he fell apart as he walked the next batter, gave up the go-ahead run on a single, and then gave up a 3-run home run before being pulled trailing 5-1. The Reds went down in order in their half of the 10th and lost.

For Elly De La Cruz, this game started off a hot run for four games as he went 6-15 (.400) with a double and two home runs (1.304 OPS) against the White Sox (three games) and Cleveland (one game).

You can follow along the entire series here.