Elly De La Cruz's surge has Reds flying and Terry Francona second-guessing

Every single Cincinnati Reds fan in attendance erupted the moment the ball left Elly De La Cruz's bat in the bottom of the sixth inning on Friday night. The Reds superstar finally broke his home run drought and sent a ball into the seats in the left field, giving his team a 7-4 lead over the Chicago Cubs.

De La Cruz hadn't hit a home run since July 31. During that 43-game stretch, De La Cruz hit just .205/.255/.290 with a 43 wRC+ and and 29.6% strikeout rate. In 39 of those 43 games, De La Cruz was batting third in the Reds lineup.

Earlier this week, Reds manager Terry Francona made the decision to bump De La Cruz down in the batting order. Since September 15 against the St. Louis Cardinals, De La Cruz has hit no higher than sixth. Oddly enough, in those five games, he's reached base nine times, including a double and a home run. One has to wonder if Francona wishes he would've made the move sooner.

Elly De La Cruz's surge has Reds flying and Terry Francona second-guessing

During his prolonged slump, anybody with two eyes could see that De La Cruz was pressing. Whether his poor performance — both in the batters' box and in the field — can be attributed to injury, fatigue, or something else entirely, he wasn't helping the team. In fact, you could make the argument that Elly was actually hurting the team.

Despite De La Cruz's struggles, Francona continued to run out his young star every night. He never took a game off, and only once was moved from shortstop to DH as a means to give him a break from the field. Having seen the difference in De La Cruz's performance over the past several games, Tito is probably wishing he'd have altered his approach with his superstar about two or three weeks sooner.

After he dropped De La Cruz in the batting order, Francona said, “I value consistency so much I think sometimes that can run into stubbornness.” Those words could come back to haunt Francona if the Reds fall short of their playoff goals.

Entering play on Saturday, the Reds are just two games back of the New York Mets in the NL Wild Card race with eight left to play. Reds fans are hoping that Tito's stubbornness doesn't cost them a trip to the playoffs.

More Cincinnati Reds News and Rumors