De La Cruz blasts no-doubter after being robbed, trolled

MILWAUKEE -- At least some in the Reds dugout noticed the display on the American Family Field scoreboard Monday trolling Elly De La Cruz.

But De La Cruz wasn’t one of them.

“No, I haven’t heard yet,” De La Cruz said through interpreter Jorge Merlos after the 3-2 loss to the Brewers.

After Joey Wiemer robbed De La Cruz of a leadoff home run Monday, the American Family Field scoreboard operators decided to have some fun at the Reds rookie sensation’s expense.

When he came up to hit two innings later, the scoreboard displayed some tongue-in-cheek trivia about him. It read, “ALMOST HIT A HOME RUN IN THE FIRST INNING … BUT DIDN’T.”

“Interesting,” De La Cruz said after the game when a reporter relayed the message.

De La Cruz didn’t have much time to look up at the scoreboard during that plate appearance. He crushed a Statcast-projected 456-foot, two-run homer off the first pitch from Colin Rea, a blast that flew 113.7 mph over the white Toyota Sequoia in right-center field.

He seemed to have an answer for the trolling.

“Something like that, I guess,” De La Cruz said. “But I’m just trying to do my job to get something done.”

The homer even left the ballpark all together, flying through one of the open window panels. It was his sixth as a Major Leaguer, but only his second longest -- just the latest example of the incredible tools he’s displayed since Cincinnati promoted him to the big leagues last month.

“What homer has Elly not hit over 400-plus feet?” said Graham Ashcraft, Monday’s starter. “Seeing him, especially with what they put up on the board right before he went up [to hit], it was a pretty cool moment.

“It was pretty awesome to see just the caliber player that he is and how he keeps growing and building. He’s so young. After a year or two in the league, just to see the player that he’s going to become, it's going to be exciting to watch and to be a part of.”

That homer put the Reds ahead 2-1 in the third inning, but the Brewers ultimately earned a walk-off win on a Christian Yelich single in the ninth.

It was the Reds’ latest close loss to the Brewers, with whom they’re neck and neck in the National League Central standings. Cincinnati, which is now 2-9 against Milwaukee, has dropped five straight against them -- all in the past two or so weeks -- four of the past five games by just one run.

“It's very close,” De La Cruz said. “I don't know what's up with that team. But you always feel the tension, or you always feel that it's coming tight at the end. They're a really good team.”

“It's tough,” Ashcraft said. “They’re all really close games. It's all been one-run games. The only thing we can do is just keep going out there and playing the game the best that we can. If we can keep doing that, things are eventually going to go the right way for us.”

Ashcraft threw 5 1/3 innings, allowed two runs on five hits and four walks and struck out eight, tying his career high. He walked Yelich, who later scored to give the Brewers the first lead of the game, but overall worked in and out of traffic on multiple occasions.

Five Reds relievers combined for 2 2/3 innings, with the only run coming off closer Alexis Díaz, whose ninth-inning leadoff walk to Blake Perkins came around to score on Yelich’s single.

“It has been and always will be important to throw strikes and attack,” manager David Bell said. “But man, it’s hard to say anything but positive things about the job our bullpen has done overall, including tonight, facing a team that doesn’t chase.”

Before Monday’s game, Bell acknowledged this week’s series is big for both teams; it’s the last time they’ll square off in the regular season. Meaning, each side won’t have any more direct shots to impact the other’s standing in the division.

Of course, there are also over two months left in the season, and even without any further head-to-head matchups, things are far from settled.

“Great games,” Bell said. “We've come up short. We have two left, and that's where our focus is. We’ve got a long way to go. We’ve got two more games against this team.

“The main thing for us is just continue to do what we’ve been doing and stay confident, stay together.”