Elly De La Cruz had to exit the Cincinnati Reds game early on Sunday afternoon. The star shortstop had already walked and singled in the game while scoring a run after both plate appearances. In the 5th inning he was due to lead off and he lined a ball into the right-center gap to the wall, but a little more than halfway down the first base line he pulled up a little bit and barely rounded first base on what would normally be at least a double and perhaps a triple for De La Cruz. His conversation with the trainer was short lived and the two of them walked off of the field and into the tunnel to head to the clubhouse.
The speed for Elly De La Cruz has been down this season, and it was down a bit last season after he injured his quad in the middle of the season. He played through the quad issue in 2025 and seemed to only push himself with his speed when it was absolutely necessary. During the game the team announced that De La Cruz had exited the game with right hamstring tightness.
Cincinnati is back on the field on Monday night as they welcome in the Kansas City Royals. Elly De La Cruz has played in 276 consecutive games. We won’t know for sure if he’ll even be available to the team when that game starts, but it seems like even if he was able to avoid a serious injury that doesn’t require a trip to the injured list that he’ll be sitting on the bench for that one.
Following the game manager Terry Francona provided an update of sorts, telling the media the following:
“The reason they said that (hamstring tightness) is he thinks, he feels like he caught it before it did anything worse. Saying that, we’re going to get him scanned at 9 in the morning and we’ll know more.”
The good news there, at least for now, is that the player himself doesn’t think it’s something very serious. Obviously there’s going to be some imaging done to see exactly how things look and sometimes toughness can go quite far, but sometimes once you can get in there and see it you may (or may not) find things that are going on. Francona noted later that “Let’s kind of hope. He’s a pretty miraculous kid. Let’s just wait and see what happens.”
Update at 6:15pm ET:
We now have the interview in the clubhouse with Elly De La Cruz where he speaks about his injury during the game on Sunday.
We have video below, but have also transcribed it for those who prefer to read.
“When I was started running and then when I was making the turn to get to 1st I felt tightness in my hamstring and immediately decided to stop because I felt like if I kept going this could get worse,” De La Cruz said via translator Tomas Vera.
“I don’t believe it’s something bad. I really don’t. Obviously we are going to see what the MRI says tomorrow, but I don’t feel like it’s something really bad at this point.”
“No, it’s not the same. Last year I had a quad injury on the left side. This is the right side in the hamstring. But no it doesn’t feel the same as last year.”
“Well it’s always frustrating. You’re right, I don’t like to be out of the game. Honestly, right now I don’t feel that bad. We’re going to wait to see what happens tomorrow. Obviously I would like to see that I can play, I don’t know if I am gonna play tomorrow. We’re going to wait to see what’s going on, but yeah it’s a little frustrating.”
When we learn more on Monday we’ll be sure to provide an update here.