Reds prospect Elly De La Cruz did this during Thursday's doubleheader
Wow! Reds Country will have to be patient, but once Elly De La Cruz arrives in Cincinnati, the fans won't be able to stay away from Great American Ball Park. The Cincinnati Reds top infield prospect put on quite the show for the Dayton Dragons yesterday.
By now, I think every Reds fan has heard of De La Cruz. If you haven't, tune into the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game next week. Both De La Cruz and pitcher Andrew Abbott will be representing the Cincinnati Reds.
De La Cruz is currently the second-highest rated prospect in Cincinnati's farm system and No. 50 in all of baseball according to MLB Pipeline. Once Nick Lodolo gets a couple more starts under his belt, De La Cruz will be the team's highest-rated prospect.
Reds prospect Elly De La Cruz homered 3 times during Thursday's doubleheader.
The Dayton Dragons had a double-dip with the West Michigan Whitecaps on Thursday. Dayton fell to West Michigan by a score of 7-3 in Game 1 of the doubleheader, but Elly De La Cruz didn't let the Dragons go down without a fight.
The Dragons' shortstop went 2-for-3 in the game with two home runs. Both were solo shots with De La Cruz taking Whitecaps' pitcher Carlos Guzman deep in the fourth inning and and fellow West Michigan hurler Jared Tobey surrendered a gopher ball in the sixth.
The switch-hitting De La Cruz mashed his 16th of the year while batting left-handed against Guzman and then turned around and delivered a moonshot over the left field wall while batting right-handed against the southpaw Tobey.
But Elly De La Cruz was not done. In the nightcap, De La Cruz blasted his 18th home run of the season off West Michigan's Matt Walker. De La Cruz's 4-for-6 performance on the evening boosted his batting average to .302 and his OPS to .954.
It won't be long before Elly De La Cruz makes the jump from High-A Dayton to Double-A Chattanooga. If the 20-year-old has similar success with the Lookouts, De La Cruz may enter next season as a Top 10 prospect in all of baseball.