Elly De La Cruz certainly looks well-equipped for a playoff race. In fact, the Cincinnati Reds all do when they're rolling like they are right now.
But it was De La Cruz, as fans chanted his name, who came up big and brought a crowd of 39,848 to its feet with the game-winning hit against the Tampa Bay Rays on July 26. De La Cruz drove in two runs on a bloop, bases-loaded, two-out single that lifted the Reds over the Rays, 6-2, on a night at Great American Ball Park when hits were in short supply for both clubs for much of the contest.
"Everybody likes the big moments," De La Cruz said. "Big crowd, tight game. It was a tight situation."
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The victory lifted the Reds to 55-50, equaling the five-games-over-.500 high-water mark they had already achieved once in 2025. Cincinnati will enter the July 27 series finale against Tampa Bay with the series win in hand and one game back in the race for the No. 3 Wild Card spot in the National League, trailing the San Diego Padres , who beat St. Louis.
Graham Ashcraft was the winning pitcher for the Reds. Andrew Abbott started the game and allowed one run and two hits in six innings as his ERA dropped from 2.13 to 2.09.
We're playing really good baseball right now," Abbott said. "I think we kind of sat down and had a discussion as a team where we're just kind of like, let's keep stacking series wins. Let's control the things that we can control. Obviously, trying to put ourselves in a situation to be buyers, to be in the playoffs and we're right on the door knocking. We're really just trying to focus on the things that we can do.
"So, really just trying to focus on the things we can do and try to get in there, and keep playing well all the way through the end and hopefully at the end, we're in the postseason."
A pitchers' duel through five innings, both clubs started to gain traction offensively in the sixth.
Yandy Diaz opened the scoring with a solo home run to left-center field to lead off the sixth. The Reds, who wore blue throwback-style caps with a National Baseball Hall of Fame patch in honor of this weekend's induction festivities, came back to take the lead in the bottom of the inning when a hard-hit Austin Hays grounder slid under the glove of Rays' shortstop Taylor Walls.
Tampa Bay tied the game in a controversial manner in its next at-bat. Graham Ashcraft appeared to have hit the strike zone for a would-be called third strike against the Rays' Josh Lowe, but home plate umpire Willie Traynor called the pitch a ball.
The next pitch from Ashcraft was lined into left field for a game-tying single. Reds manager Terry Francona then appeared to argue with Traynor from the dugout and was ejected. Francona came out to the field to continue the dispute and crew chief Todd Tichenor diffused the exchange.
Then, De La Cruz delivered his game-winning hit on a full count after initially falling behind, 0-2, against Rays lefty reliever Garrett Cleavinger.
The patience he has, he's seeing the ball really well over the last couple weeks, or the last couple months, actually," said Reds bench coach Freddie Benavides. "For him to put it in play, especially against one of their top left-handed relievers, so, it was a great at-bat and great things happen when you put it in play.
Benavides was the acting manager for Cincinnati after Francona's ejection.
T.J. Friedl and Matt McLain added more insurance runs in the eighth inning. Friedl hit a dribbler single that got past Lowe, who entered the game at shortstop. A McLain single made it 6-2.
The Reds will go for a sweep of the Rays on July 27, (1:40 p.m.) as Cincinnati's Brady Singer (7-8, 4.84 ERA) is scheduled to start against Tampa's Shane Baz (8-6, 4.66 ERA).
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Elly De La Cruz comes through in the clutch as Reds beat Rays, take series win
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