MINNEAPOLIS – No sooner did some media wise guy ask Cincinnati Reds Manager David Bell whether his All-Star shortstop needed a day off than Elly De La Cruz went out Friday night and delivered another career first.
"I'm not tired," he said after proving it.
The kid who hit for the cycle in his 15th game in the majors last year and already owns a rare 20-homer, 60-steal season this year teed off in Friday's seventh inning for his first career grand slam.
"It feels so good," he said. "It means a lot. It's the first of many."
The slam capped a six-run inning that propelled the Reds to a 8-4 victory over the playoff-minded Minnesota Twins in the opener of a three-game series at the end of a long, four-city trip for the Reds.
If anything, it might have struck some as surprising that De La Cruz didn't have a grand slam in any of his 244 games before this one.
"I didn't realize that," Bell said. "It seems like he has."
De La Cruz might get all the remaining 13 games in the Reds season to try to get a second.
He already has started every game of this long trip. And he's tied for the National League lead in games played, having missed only two of the Reds' 149.
"I'm good. I'm going to play every day," said De La Cruz, who has three scheduled team days off in an 11-day stretch starting Monday.
He was just 7-for-41 (.171) with 21 strikeouts and four extra-base hits in his last 11 games entering the Twins series.
He also leads the majors with 197 strikeouts (No. 2 on the Reds' all-time single-season list, behind Drew Stubbs' 205 in 2011). That included five Ks in his last seven at-bats going into Friday.
Fatigue, right? Needs a day off, right?
Maybe De La Cruz overheard Bell and the media discussing that day-off business before the game?
"Us?" Bell said when asked after the game about that discussion. "I did not (say he needs a day off).
"He's playing with good energy, playing hard. He's taking care of himself. I know he's played a lot of innings, played a lot of games, All-Star Game. We'll watch everybody close, and if somebody needs it, we'll give them a day off for sure. But he's proven that just having him on the field he helps us win games."
So what's next for a guy who in his first 245 career game has that cycle, among five four-hit games, and a four-hit, four-steal game, and a game in which he stole three bases in the span of three pitches in one inning?
"I don’t know? Walk-off?" said De La Cruz, . We never know what comes next.
Cincinnati Reds-Minnesota Twins notes
The grand slam, De La Cruz's 24th home run of the season, also was his 100th career extra-base hit. He has 99 steals and was on deck when Jonathan India struck out to end the Reds' ninth, missing a potential last chance to nab No. 100 Friday. No player in MLB history has ever recorded his 100th extra-base hit and 100th steal in the same game.
... Stretching credulity, the Reds on Friday improved to 31-18 in the openers of series this season (and makeup games such as Monday in Atlanta). That's the best record in the majors in such games this season. The Phillies were 31-18 in openers until losing Friday to the Mets.
... Reds rookie starter Julian Aguiar (2-0, 4.88 ERA) pitched 6 1/3 innings in his sixth big-league start. It was his longest by one out and only the second in which he completed five innings.
...Reds centerfielder TJ Friedl, who went 3-for-4, opened the Reds' scoring with a solo home run, his 12th, over the right field wall in the second and in the big seventh delivered a go-ahead bunt single to squeeze home the Reds' second run. It was the first time Friedl – who had 17 homers and 17 bunt hits last year – has hit a home run and had a bunt single in the same game since doing it twice last year (April 2 against the Pirates and June 27 against the Orioles). "I'll take that. I'll take all of them," said Friedl, who also has one game each of the last two years with a home run and infield hit on a full swing (June 14 against the Brewers this year and June 28 against the O's last year). The Reds are 5-0 over those two seasons when Friedl hits a ball over the fence and also reaches on a ball that doesn't leave the infield.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Grand style: Cincinnati Reds' Elly De La Cruz clocks another career first
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