Elly De La Cruz supplied a key moment in the Cincinnati Reds’ 5-3 victory over the Texas Rangers on Friday, drilling a sixth-inning solo home run off left-hander MacKenzie Gore to briefly put the Reds in front. De La Cruz finished 1-for-4 in the game, with the long ball accounting for the lone run he produced that night.
The blast was De La Cruz’s third home run of the season and marked his second homer this year while batting right-handed against a left-handed pitcher. He took Gore deep in the sixth inning to cut into the Rangers’ edge and provide a momentum swing that helped Cincinnati secure the two-run margin by the final out.
De La Cruz is a switch hitter, but his splits show a clear preference for production from the left side of the plate. His career on-base plus slugging when batting left-handed sits at .846, compared to a .616 OPS when he hits from the right. Of the 63 career home runs he has compiled to date, only 15 have come when he was batting right-handed — a reminder that power from the right side has been the exception rather than the rule.
That rarity makes Friday’s homer notable beyond the immediate scoreboard impact. While De La Cruz has shown the ability to hit both ways, his left-handed success has been the more consistent element of his profile; homers like this one as a right-handed batter against a lefty suggest either an occasional ability to flip the matchup or incremental adjustments to generate power from the opposite side.
The Reds were able to hold on after the sixth-inning rally, turning De La Cruz’s contribution into part of the final margin. Beyond the homer, his 1-for-4 line reflected typical usage in the lineup and emphasized how a single swing can be decisive in a relatively low-scoring contest.
Friday’s game adds a small but meaningful footnote to De La Cruz’s developing resume: a young, switch-hitting slugger who still produces most of his power from the left side but, on occasion, can change the game batting right-handed. As the season continues, those infrequent right-handed homers may be watched closely for signs that the split is narrowing.