Elly De La Cruz has seemingly re-written the record books over the last two years. Many times it’s been a record in the Cincinnati Reds books, but more than a few times it’s also been the Major League Baseball record book. Friday night saw him wind up with his name in a new column in both.
During Friday’s game against Pittsburgh we saw De La Cruz steal his 65th base of the season in the 4th inning. That also happened to be his 100th of his career. That steal made him the 3rd player in MLB history to have 100 stolen bases in their first two big league seasons. He joined Rickey Henderson and Vince Coleman on the list.
That stolen base also put him in the 100 steals/100 extra-base hits club in his first two seasons in the big leagues. He got there faster than anyone else has ever done. Juan Samuel previously held the record, but Elly De La Cruz got there two games quicker. Samuel was once a coach in the Cincinnati Reds farm system. He was with the club for one season. That year he happened to be the bench coach for the Dayton Dragons. The shortstop on that team in the first half? Elly De La Cruz.
With his 65 steals on the season, De La Cruz passed up the Atlanta Braves. They have 64 on the year. He’s also tied with the Minnesota Twins. Cincinnati’s shortstop is also just one behind the San Francisco Giants. That should be a fun race to track over the final week-and-a-half of the regular season.
On the flip side of things, De La Cruz also struck out twice in the game. The first time saw him tie the club record for strikeouts in a season. The second strikeout put him down as the leader, surpassing Drew Stubbs on the list with 206.
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