Elly De La Cruz (ankle) in Monday’s lineup at DH

De La Cruz walked to open the home half of the first inning and swiped second base, but the Reds couldn’t cash him in from there. The 24-year-old superstar then smacked an RBI double in the third and scored on an RBI knock by Sal Stewart. He also doubled in the fifth inning and swiped third before being stranded there. De La Cruz finished his night with a leadoff double off of Gregory Soto in the ninth inning and he scored the winning run on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Nathaniel Lowe. For the season, De La Cruz is now hitting a robust .279/.355/.504 with 18 homers, 48 RBI and 20 stolen bases.

The Reds pull the plug on Arroyo after a .244/.286/.282 start in 142 plate appearances in which he had one stolen base and zero homers. The 22-year-old will likely get more chances in the future, but his hitting line simply didn’t give him much room for error here despite the Reds being out of the playoff picture.

The surprising part is that they also sent down Edwin Arroyo, giving McLain what appears to be another real chance at playing time at second base after he struggled mightily in 309 plate appearances so far this year. McLain has eight homers and 11 stolen bases despite hitting .190, so he may be of deep-league interest again if he can start hitting.

This was a bad, bad game for De La Cruz. Not getting a hit is fine, that happens to great players all the time. Yet, he hurt his team with sloppy defense here. This game unraveled for the Reds when the Guardians put up four runs in the fifth inning and that frame started with De La Cruz misplaying a ground ball. Then, he had an opportunity to erase his mistake when the next ball was hit at him, but tried to flip it with his glove to start a double play and it was off target. Mistakes like this happen too often for a player of De La Cruz’s caliber. He’s still having an excellent season for our purposes with 18 home runs, 18 stolen bases, and an .842 OPS through 88 games.

Francona added that they want McLain to continue getting at-bats in the minors for a few additional games. The 26-year-old middle infielder has been out with a calf strain since mid-July. He generated a ton of hype with a stellar performance in spring training, but has really struggled at the dish this season, hitting .190 with eight homers and 11 steals in 309 plate appearances.

De La Cruz singled with one out in the fifth inning and swiped second base, but the Reds were unable to cash him in from there. He also led off the ninth inning with a walk, stole second base, took third on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI single off the bat of Sal Stewart. On the season, the dynamic 24-year-old shortstop is now slashing .276/.352/.500 with 17 homers, 46 RBI and 18 stolen bases over 372 plate appearances.

McLain, who was dealing with a calf strain, looks likely to be back after just a short layoff if the Reds will have him. There’s not exactly a spot in the lineup for him with Edwin Arroyo essentially becoming the everyday second baseman while Ke’Bryan Hayes has been activated to play good defense at third base and get two hits every 10 at-bats. The Reds had started to try him in center field before the injury, so perhaps that’s another ticket to the lineup.

De La Cruz got the scoring started with a solo homer off of Luis Castillo in the first inning. He later drew a walk in the eighth and was thrown out at home. The 24-year-old shortstop is hitting .280/.354/.509 with 17 homers, 55 runs scored, 46 RBI, and 15 steals across 362 plate appearances.

The 24-year-old superstar led off the top half of the first inning with a single and raced around to score the game’s first run on an RBI double off the bat of Sal Stewart. He then put the cherry on top of the victory with a 434-foot (105.8-mph EV) solo shot off of Jeff Criswell in the ninth inning. With his four-hit attack, De La Cruz is now slashing an impressive .282/.354/.506 with 16 homers, 45 RBI and 14 stolen bases (in 20 attempts) on the season.

De La Cruz broke a scoreless tie in the fifth inning, sending his 15th homer of the season into the stands. He would later triple in the bottom of the seventh and came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Sal Stewart to put the Reds up 2-0. Elly continues to go on a tear since returning from injury and is slashing .286/.390/.543 on the month with a few days to go before the All-Star break.