Elly De La Cruz went deep twice for his first career multi-homer performance on Tuesday, lifting the visiting Cincinnati Reds to an 11-7 victory over the Cleveland Guardians.
De La Cruz went deep to lead off the fourth inning and added a two-run shot in the ninth to boost his home-run total to 13 on the season. He also had an RBI single in the fifth inning.
Cincinnati’s Luke Maile homered and had a go-ahead, two-run single in the fifth inning to highlight his three-hit performance.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand launched a two-run homer, TJ Friedl also went deep and Spencer Steer ripped an RBI triple for the Reds (81-77), who have won two games in a row following a four-game skid.
Cincinnati sits two games behind the Chicago Cubs (82-74) and Arizona Diamondbacks (82-74), who currently own the final two National League wild-card spots and both play later Tuesday.
Cleveland’s Bo Naylor launched a three-run blast and Kole Calhoun and Andres Gimenez added back-to-back homers. Naylor and Gimenez each scored twice for the Guardians (74-84), who have lost three games in a row and six of their last eight.
With Cleveland nursing a 7-5 lead in the fifth inning, James Karinchak (2-5) relieved Eli Morgan and promptly allowed De La Cruz’s RBI single to center field. Maile stepped up two batters later and singled to left field to plate both Joey Votto and De La Cruz.
Karinchak took the loss after being charged with one run on two hits in two-thirds of an inning.
The uprising made a winner out of Sam Moll (2-3), who allowed one hit over two scoreless innings. Fernando Cruz, Lucas Sims and Alexis Diaz combined to strike out three batters over four scoreless innings to end the game.
Naylor’s 10th homer of the season staked Cleveland to a 3-0 lead in the second before Cincinnati countered with four runs in the third.
Cleveland rebounded with a three-run output in its half of the third to take a 6-4 advantage, with Calhoun belting a two-run homer and Gimenez following with a solo shot.
De La Cruz opened the fourth with a homer, but Josh Naylor had an RBI single in the Guardians’ half of the inning to put the hosts up 7-5.
–Field Level Media
