{"id":891904,"date":"2026-09-11T15:28:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T15:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/891904\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T15:28:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T15:28:20","slug":"mlb-analyst-has-high-praise-for-elly-de-la-cruz-after-historic-stretch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/891904\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB Analyst Has High Praise for Elly De La Cruz After Historic Stretch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9d\">Despite not being an All-Star this season, Elly De La Cruz is having the best season of his career and he&#8217;s been on an absolute heater of late. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9i\">De La Cruz will go into Friday night&#8217;s game against the Brewers with homers in his last five games. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9n\">Going back to August 22, De La Cruz is slashing .449\/.500\/.812 with a wRC+ of 255, and 13 extra-base hits.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9s\">On Thursday, MLB Network&#8217;s Brian Kenny said De La Cruz is a top five player in the sport. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9x\">&#8220;He&#8217;s very close (to being MVP), <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MLBNow\/status\/2098128625216168182?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Kenny said on MLB Now<\/a>. &#8220;He&#8217;s top five right now. He&#8217;s top five in the league right now. He is slugging .511, he&#8217;s got a 139 OPS+&#8230;Totality of hitting, he&#8217;s 5th in WAR, which includes his tremendous throwing arm, his shortstop play, and his base running, which is still superior. He is a top-five guy in the league right now.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"a2\">Although it&#8217;s been a disappointing season for the Reds, their young stars have been incredible. Sal Stewart, Chase Burns, and De La Cruz have all shown they&#8217;re a trio that the front office can build around. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"a7\">De La Cruz is under team control through 2029. They&#8217;ve yet to win a postseason game with him on the roster. Time is ticking. <\/p>\n<p>Dayton Dragons Win First Postseason Home Game Since 2011<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/01m28bwt5dfg6rb66g48.jpg\" alt=\"Red\" title=\"Red\" width=\"360\" height=\"203\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"ao\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Dayton Dragons baseball fans cheer on their team against the Lansing Lugnuts, Thursday, April 2, 2026, during the season-opener at Jackson Field in Lansing. Dayton won 8-7. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"au\">The Reds&#8217; High-A minor league affiliate, the Dayton Dragons, won their first home postseason game since 2011 on Thursday night. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"az\">Dayton had just five hits on the night, but that was enough to win 3-1 thanks to their great pitching. Kyle McCoy, who the Reds drafted in the 8th round of the 2025 MLB Draft, pitched four scoreless innings. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"b4\">Trent Hodgdon closed it down in the 9th for his 12th save of the season. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"b9\">\u201cJust sticking to the plan,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/milb\/dayton\/news\/dragons-win-force-decisive-third-game-of-playoff-semi-final-series\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hodgdon told MLB.com about the 9th inning<\/a>.\u00a0 \u201cWhat we&#8217;ve really preached all season, just getting ahead in the count. And [Pitching Coach Willie Blair] always says, get ahead in the count (and) you&#8217;re going to have success and that was the main thing, just trying to stay ahead the whole time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"be\">The Dragons will look to move on to the next round in a win or go home matchup on Friday night. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-15\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"bj\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/reds\/onsi\/newsletter\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign Up For Our DAILY Newsletter for More Free Coverage of the Cincinnati Reds Delivered to YOU Directly<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-16\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"bo\">Follow me on X at @RedsDaily4 for more. <\/p>\n<p>Make sure you bookmark Cincinnati Reds Talk for the latest news, exclusive interviews, and daily coverage of the Cincinnati Reds! Follow Cincinnati Reds OnSI on Twitter\/X: @RedsTalkSI. Like Our Cincinnati Reds On SI Facebook Page. Follow Cincinnati Reds On SI on Instagram.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" preventdefault:click=\"\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\" on:pointerenter=\"q-BpOLQORF.js#s_1NOcOpHWmT0\" on:touchstart=\"q-C02KUlcx.js#s_R8AiGTDeM28\" on:focus=\"q-4HuWJVLT.js#s_gxiTM6qMMu8\" on:click=\"q-gAC8BGLP.js#s_lDqay9E5m5g[0]\" q:id=\"bz\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite not being an All-Star this season, Elly De La Cruz is having the best season of his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":891905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-891904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}