GOODYEAR, Ariz. — It was the third game of spring for the Reds on Tuesday, but the tag-team lineup partnership of Elly De La Cruz and Eugenio Suárez already delivered some big punches.
In the bottom of the fifth inning during Cincinnati’s 5-4 walk-off win over the Royals at Goodyear Ballpark, the De La Cruz/Suárez duo slugged back-to-back home runs against Royals reliever Carlos Estévez.
Leading off the fifth batting left-handed vs. Estévez, De La Cruz lifted a 1-0 changeup very high in the air with a 107.9 mph exit velocity. The ball cleared the center-field wall and then some, traveling a Statcast-projected 432 feet. It flew to the left of the batters’ eye, bounced on the concourse and landed again over an outer fence by a street.
It was De La Cruz’s first homer of the spring. Hit with a 37-degree launch angle, Reds manager Terry Francona initially thought it was a routine pop-up.
“When Elly hit it, I kind of put my head down. I’ll stop doing that,” Francona said.
Next, Suárez added his first spring homer by taking a 3-2 Estévez changeup into the left-center-field bullpen. He went 2-for-3 in the game, also hitting a third-inning single to center field. De La Cruz was 1-for-3 with two strikeouts.
Suárez, who has posted two 49-homer seasons (including for Cincinnati in 2019), was brought back to the club as a free agent on a one-year, $15 million contract signed on Feb. 3. Expected to bat cleanup this season, he should provide protection behind De La Cruz batting third and lengthen Cincinnati’s lineup.
“Even when I got on, I wasn’t up to par yet. Coming in knowing no strings attached is always great,” Abbott said.
Abbott started vs. the Royals on Tuesday, pitching two innings and allowing two earned runs and two hits with no walks and two strikeouts while throwing 27 pitches (17 strikes). He also threw additional pitches in the bullpen after departing.
“Overall I feel great,” Abbott said. “I was executing all five [pitches] in the zone. They took some good swings but had some bad swings, too. That’s encouraging. The best thing was efficiency, which is what we set out to do last year at the end. Just be quick, be in the zone, force them to make contact, early outs, try to go deeper in games and also limiting walks.”
Abbott’s only blemish was a two-out, two-run home run to right field by Josh Rojas.
After opening last season on the injured list to complete his spring tuning up, Abbott became a first-time All-Star as he went 10-7 with a 2.87 ERA in 29 starts and 166 1/3 innings.
Because the Reds have playoff aspirations to improve upon their brief taste of the postseason in 2025, Abbott understands the need to have another big year.
“I think it is because I was reliable last year, and I want to continue that,” he said. “That’s who l will be for the team. I want to throw a lot of innings. I want to be out there making 30, 32 starts, whatever it is. In whatever capacity I can help, I’m going to do it.”
Second spot stuff
For the second time this spring, Matt McLain was in the second spot of the Reds’ lineup and went 1-for-3 with a walk. Francona is still mulling who will have that spot regularly in the regular season, but McLain is a leading candidate if he puts together a strong offensive spring.
But Francona will also use that spot over the coming weeks to give players less likely to bat second a chance. An upcoming lineup is expected to have Ke’Bryan Hayes there. Hayes usually bats at the bottom of the order.
“I wanted to try to get him that third at-bat without staying on the field,” Francona said. “Sometimes when we don’t have our regular lineup, we try to get guys at-bats just because I think it helps.”
