Witness the Cincinnati phenom’s raw power as we revisit his most towering moonshots, including a recent 457-foot blast that nearly exited Great American Ball Park entirely.
The Cincinnati Reds have lost six of their last seven games after their most recent 4-1 defeat to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ace starter Tarik Skubal shut the Reds down, allowing just three hits in seven innings for what has been his best start as a Dodger.
Juan Brito, Eugenio Suarez, and Dane Myers combined for three of the Reds’ four hits. The last was a loud one, coming off the bat of Elly De La Cruz, which also happened to result in the Reds’ only run.
De La Cruz took a high, out-of-the-zone fastball into deep right-center field, just missing the promotional sign to give a lucky Reds fan a free Toyota. The ball traveled 457 feet and was hit over 113 mph. You could tell it was going to be a long home run because of how the camera zoomed out and remained zoomed out for longer than usual.
C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic reported that the ball bounced inside the park once and then bounced out of the park onto Mehring Way behind the stadium, with eyes on the Ohio River. However, it’s believed someone picked it up and walked away with it.
Since there isn’t much positive to talk about in terms of the Reds at the moment, let’s look at the four other longest home runs of De La Cruz’s career.
De La Cruz hit this one 119 mph for one of the hardest hit balls of his career. It was also the first two home run game of his career.
De La Cruz set the standard that he was going to threaten to leave the park consistently on his first home run, as he was two rows away from doing so on his first major-league home run. He didn’t get quite there until Monday night.
Colin Rea left a changeup at the bottom of the zone, right in De La Cruz’s wheelhouse, and he very nearly hit the Brewers’ version of the Toyota giveaway in right-center field. He stood in the box for a while to admire his work.
This came after Nationals manager Davey Martinez asked for the umpires to inspect De La Cruz's bat for a knob monitor early in the game.
