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Sports

De La Cruz's first big league grand slam keys Reds to 8-4 win over Twins

two baseball players in action
Cincinnati Reds Elly De La Cruz (44) bats during the third inning of a baseball game, Friday in Minneapolis.
Nikolas Liepins | AP

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Elly De La Cruz hit his first big league grand slam in a six-run seventh inning, and the Cincinnati Reds beat Minnesota Twins 8-4 on Friday night.

Minnesota (78-69) lost for the seventh time in 10 games. Its lead over Detroit for the final AL wild card was cut to 2 1/2 games.

“You give up all those runs on one swing, that’s going to be hard,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We have a couple weeks left and we need to play solid baseball. ”

TJ Friedl drove in the Reds' first two runs with a second-inning home run and a squeeze bunt single in the seventh off Bailey Ober (12-7) that put Cincinnati ahead 2-1. Ty France hit an RBI double and De La Cruz followed with his 24th home run, his second since Aug. 21.

De La Cruz stood at the plate and held his bat high, watching the drive off Jorge Alcala soar into the right-field second deck.

“I feel so good. It means a lot,” De La Cruz said. “It’s the first of many.”

The All-Star shortstop has played in an NL-leading 147 games this season, and manager David Bell doesn't expect to give him a break down the stretch.

“He’s playing with good energy. He’s playing hard. He’s taking care of himself," Bell said. "I know he’s played a lot of innings, a lot of games, All-Star Game. We’re watching everybody close. If somebody really needs one, we’ll give him a day off, for sure. He’s proving just having him on the field helps us win games.”

Julian Aguiar (2-0), in the longest of his six major league starts, held the Twins to three hit over 6 1/3 innings with four strikeouts.

“I just went out there, just grooved along. All my pitches were working with me. It kind of went by quick,” said Aguiar, who hadn't thrown a pitch in the seventh inning before Friday. “I didn’t realize (until) I got out the mound in the seventh inning and they started singing for the seventh-inning stretch. I was like, ‘Oh. OK.’”

Friedl had three hits and drove in three runs. His home run off was off the end of his bat and landed in the flower boxes just beyond the 23-foot right-field wall.

“I was hoping it would say fair, if anything,” Friedl said. “Normally when you hit it out front like that is going to hook towards the line more, so I was watching it and saw it wasn’t hooking. That’s when I started running, and I guess it just barely cleared.”

Byron Buxton homered for the Twins in his first game since Aug. 12 after recovering from a hip injury.

“Nice to see him get back in action and whack one,” Baldelli said. “Already, he comes in and impacts us in a really nice way.”

Ober gave up five runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings. He completed at least six innings for the 14th time in his last 15 starts.

Up next

Minnesota RHP Simeon Woods Richardson (5-4, 3.96) starts Saturday against Cincinnati RHP Nick Martinez (8-6, 3.46).