Elly De La Cruz went 3-for-4, drove in four runs and provided a highlight-reel defensive play while Spencer Steer belted a two-run homer as the Cincinnati Reds beat the visiting Colorado Rockies 7-2 on Tuesday.
With his eighth inning two-run shot, De La Cruz now has 10 homers, tied with three others for the most by any switch-hitter before May since 1900.
Cincinnati right-hander Chase Burns (3-1) allowed just two runs in six innings as Cincinnati won for the eighth time in 10 games.
Edouard Julien went 3-for-4 with a solo home run and drove in both runs for Colorado, which went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position and had its three-game win streak snapped.
The Cincinnati win was highlighted by three key defensive plays. With one out and a runner at second, Colorado’s Kyle Karros chopped a grounder over the head of third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes. De La Cruz backed up the play and fielded the ball, throwing across his body to retire Karros by a half-step.
The play helped the Reds keep the Rockies off the scoreboard after Cincinnati jumped on Colorado starter Kyle Freeland for three runs in the first, highlighted by Steer’s two-run homer to left-center, his fifth of the year.
Freeland (1-2) was making his fourth start of the season but his first since returning from the injured list earlier in the day. The left-hander, out since April 12 with left shoulder inflammation, allowed four runs on five hits over five innings, striking out four and walking one.
Burns scattered seven hits, striking out nine and walking one. With Burns at 81 pitches entering the sixth, he allowed a leadoff single to TJ Rumfield. But Cincinnati first baseman Sal Stewart fielded Tyler Freeman’s bunt cleanly and threw a strike to De La Cruz to get the lead runner.
The play proved pivotal as Troy Johnston followed with a double to put runners at second and third with one out. Burns followed with a strikeout and a foul popout to escape the jam.
Reds right-hander Graham Ashcraft was the beneficiary of an inning-ending double play in the seventh started by De La Cruz to get out of a first-and-third, one-out bind. Tony Santillan also stranded a pair of runners in a scoreless eighth.
