De La Cruz's Streak Reaches Five as Dodgers Rout Reds 14-1

Elly De La Cruz homered for a fifth consecutive game on Wednesday night, a career-high streak that pulled the Cincinnati Reds shortstop within two games of the franchise record as the Los Angeles Dodgers routed Cincinnati 14-1 at Dodger Stadium to complete a three-game sweep.

De La Cruz's solo shot came in the top of the fourth inning off Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, a first-pitch, 97.4 mph fastball he drove 403 feet over the center-field wall. It was his 26th home run of the season, a new career high, and it broke his own Reds franchise record for home runs by a switch-hitter, set with 25 in 2024, according to MLB.com's account of the game.

The numbers

The streak is the longest of De La Cruz's four-year career and the longest by a switch-hitter in Reds history. He is the 10th player in franchise history to homer in five straight games, a list that includes Joey Votto, Eugenio Suárez, Jay Bruce, Devin Mesoraco, Adam Dunn, Ken Griffey Jr., Johnny Bench, George Crowe and Ted Kluszewski. He sits two games shy of the outright franchise mark of seven consecutive games with a home run, which Votto set in July 2021.

Across the three-game series at Dodger Stadium, De La Cruz went 5-for-10 with three home runs, a double and four RBIs — roughly two-thirds of Cincinnati's total run production over the set. His five-game run also ties for the second-longest active streak in the majors this season; Tampa Bay's Junior Caminero holds the longest, at six straight games. On the other side of the ball, Yamamoto struck out 10 Reds hitters over seven innings, the eighth time in his career he has reached double-digit strikeouts in a start, per the official MLB.com game recap.

How it fits into a breakout season

The home run streak is the latest data point in what has become a career year for the 24-year-old. De La Cruz has become the first shortstop in major-league history to post multiple seasons with at least 25 home runs, 25 stolen bases and 5.0 wins above replacement before turning 25, doing it in both 2024 and again this year, according to reporting from Cincinnati's Local 12. He has also cut his error total from 29 in 2024 and 26 in 2025 down to 18 this season, evidence of the defensive polish that has accompanied his offensive power. Earlier in the same series against Los Angeles, he was clocked at 105.3 mph on a throw from the outfield that cut down a runner attempting an inside-the-park home run, an outing that had already made him a focal point of the three games in Los Angeles.

None of it was enough to slow the Dodgers, who have now won 12 of their last 15 games and sit atop the National League West at 88-57. Los Angeles supplied the rest of Wednesday's scoring with four home runs of its own — a two-run shot from Mookie Betts in the third inning, a two-run blast from Max Muncy in the sixth, a two-run homer from Enrique Hernández in the seventh and a solo shot from Kyle Tucker in the eighth — turning what had been a tense pitchers' battle for one inning into a laugher.

Who is affected

For Cincinnati, the loss and the sweep are a reminder of how far the club remains from October. The Reds enter Thursday roughly six games back of the final National League wild-card spot, according to MLB.com's wild-card standings, with the Phillies, Cubs and Padres currently holding those berths. Manager Terry Francona's team has leaned heavily on De La Cruz's bat during a difficult stretch, and his streak has become one of the few consistent bright spots as the season winds down. For the Dodgers, already positioned as division champions, the sweep was a tune-up ahead of the postseason, with contributions spread across the lineup rather than resting on any single player.

"Well, it's fun to watch. I mean, on a night that there wasn't a lot of fun stuff to watch, it's pretty impressive," Reds manager Terry Francona said of De La Cruz's home run streak.

Reaction

Teammates have taken notice of the run, even as the Reds have been unable to translate it into wins. "He's very special. He's amazing," third baseman Eugenio Suárez said of De La Cruz, according to Yahoo Sports. The comparisons being drawn locally are notable given the players on the list De La Cruz has now joined: Votto is a franchise icon and 2021 comeback player of the year, while Bench and Griffey Jr. are both Hall of Famers, a point Sports Illustrated's Reds coverage emphasized in framing Wednesday's home run as part of a larger pattern rather than an isolated feat.

What happens next

De La Cruz and the Reds return home to Great American Ball Park for their next series, where he will look to extend the streak to six games and then match, or pass, Votto's franchise record of seven. Cincinnati has roughly three weeks left in the regular season to close the gap in the wild-card race, a climb that looked steeper after Wednesday's lopsided finish in Los Angeles. The Dodgers, meanwhile, continue positioning their pitching staff and lineup ahead of the postseason, with Yamamoto's latest strikeout-heavy outing reinforcing his standing in the team's playoff rotation plans.