Reds phenom Elly De La Cruz needs just six innings to hit for first career cycle

Somehow, Elly De La Cruz keeps managing to one-up himself. He arrived to the Cincinnati Reds surrounded by as much hype as any prospect in recent memory, a 6’5 shortstop with the kind of size, speed and skill that comes around once or twice in a generation. And then he stepped foot on a Major League field, and he was somehow even better than advertised — immediately hitting balls harder and flying around the bases faster than just about anyone in baseball.

De La Cruz entered Friday night’s marquee matchup against the Atlanta Braves with two homers, six steals and a .923 OPS over his first 14 games, a big part of why Cincinnati had ripped off 11 wins in a row. But of course, he wasn’t satisfied, so he decided to add yet another bullet point to his already-lengthy resume: He went ahead and hit for the cycle. Even more ridiculous, he needed just six innings to do it.

First he doubled in the bottom of the second. Then, just one inning later, came an absolute moonshot of a homer to right:

Third at-bat: Ho-hum, just an RBI single:

At that point, with De La Cruz — who, again, is literally the fastest man in baseball at 6’5 — just a triple shy, the cycle watch was officially on. And when he put a ball into the gap in his fourth at-bat in the bottom of the sixth, he was off to the races:

Some stats, in case you were wondering whether a 21-year-old going for the cycle in his 15th career game was remotely normal: It’s the cycle for the Reds since 1989, and he’s the youngest player to hit for the cycle since 1972. De La Cruz is also among the youngest in terms of career games played to pull off the feat, because of course he is:

Just put the man in Cooperstown already: