It was only fitting for Elly De La Cruz bobblehead night that the man himself was the star of the game for the Cincinnati Reds against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
With thousands of fans gripping his bobblehead in the stands, De La Cruz hit a grand slam in the third inning to open the scoring, flashed some leather in the field, and delivered one of his trademark performances in a 5-2 win against the Pirates at Great American Ball Park on Saturday before a crowd of 31,188.
The victory moved the Reds to 7-8 on the year. Cincinnati, which secured its second straight series victory and has won four of its last five games, will send ace pitcher Hunter Greene to the mound Sunday (1:40 p.m.) to try to close out a sweep of Pittsburgh.
Andrew Abbott made his debut start of 2025 after he started the season on the injured list, and his long-awaited appearance was worth the wait. Abbott took the win (1-0) as he delivered five innings of two-hit, one-run ball on 81 pitches.
The only real blemish on Abbott's outing was a fifth-inning solo home run allowed to Alexander Canario.
Pirates starter Andrew Heaney (0-1) took his first defeat of the year but allowed only three hits. After Santiago Espinal's double in the third inning, he hit Jose Trevino and Blake Dunn. That loaded the bases for De La Cruz, and the Pirates couldn't dig out of the resulting 4-0 hole after he hit the grand slam.
The Pirates did pull to within striking distance at 4-2 in seventh inning, but the Reds tacked onto their lead in the bottom of the inning.
Pittsburgh botched a would-be double-play, allowing Noelvi Marte to score from third base on Trevino's forceout grounder for a 5-2 lead.
De La Cruz would bat with the bases loaded again in the seventh but saw his sharp grounder scooped up for the force out at second base to end the frame.
Ian Gibaut (sixth inning), Scott Barlow (recorded two outs in the seventh inning), Tony Santillan (1 1/3 innings) and Emilio Pagán helped nail down Abbott's win.
Pagán completed his fourth save of the ...
