Let that be a lesson to whoever operates the video board at American Family Field not to tempt Elly De La Cruz.
After the Cincinnati Reds rookie was robbed of a home run in the top of the first by Milwaukee Brewers’ center fielder Joey Wiemer, the scoreboard operator decided to have little fun with De La Cruz his next time up.
Where fans would usually see a player’s stats or a description of their last at-bat, they saw something a bit different.
“Almost hit a home run in the first inning…but didn’t,” the video board read as De La Cruz stepped into the batter’s box in the top of the third.
But those words quickly came back to haunt whoever wrote them as the shortstop did exactly what one would imagine after seeing a taunt like that.
De La Cruz crushed the ball 456 feet for a two-run home run to give the Reds a 2-1 lead over the Brewers, who went on to win the game 3-2.
The blast was his sixth home run of the season
The Reds made sure to have a little fun with it as well, trolling the Brewers on Twitter with a screenshot of the video board and tagging the “Baseball Images that Precede Unfortunate Events” account.
The budding superstar had already made a little history the day before when he had hit his fifth home run of the year and tied Barry Bonds from 1986 for the second-fewest games needed to reach five home runs and 15 stolen bases since 1900, reaching the mark in his 40th game, according to ESPN Stats and Info.
It probably was a little sweeter of a moment coming against the Brewers, who the Reds are locked in a battle with for the division lead in the NL Central.
The loss however dropped Cincinnati to a 1 1/2 behind the Brewers for the division lead.
