Elly De La Cruz vomits on field, stays in game and hits 435-foot homer

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Playing during an excessive heat warning in St. Louis, Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz vomited on the field during the fourth inning of Saturday’s game against the Cardinals. De La Cruz stayed in the game, and three innings later, hit a go-ahead home run.

With the Reds’ Nick Martinez on the mound with two outs and a 3-1 count to the Cardinals’ Nolan Arenado, Martinez stepped off the mound as De La Cruz walked into the outfield and threw up.

The game was stopped as athletic trainers attended to De La Cruz, who appeared to tell manager Terry Francona that he would stay in the game. A member of the St. Louis grounds crew was seen with a shovel to clean up the outfield grass where De La Cruz got sick.

It was 92 degrees at first pitch and 96 degrees at the end of the game. With the humidity, it felt like the temperature was 106.

In the top of the third inning, De La Cruz hit a two-out triple to center field. The relay throw short-hopped Arenado and got by him. De La Cruz tried to score, but Cardinals pitcher Sonny Gray was backing up the throw and threw De La Cruz out at the plate to end the inning. De La Cruz was slow to get up after his head-first slide into home before getting up and going into the field.

During the top of the fourth, De La Cruz could be seen sitting by himself and drinking fluids.

“He drank a bunch of water — I mean a bunch,” Francona told reporters after a 6-5 loss in 11 innings. “He went right out and got rid of it. Probably could’ve made some money, that’s game-used. It’s probably worth something.”

De La Cruz grounded out to end the fifth inning, but came up again in a tie game in the seventh inning. The Cardinals chose to leave in left-hander Steven Matz to face the switch-hitting De La Cruz after the Reds tied the score on a walk and two hits. De La Cruz entered the game with a .933 OPS batting left-handed and .580 right-handed. De La Cruz jumped on Matz’s first pitch, an 85-mph changeup, and hit it 435 feet to center field for his 17th home run of the season — fourth while batting right-handed — to give the Reds a 4-2 lead.

“The kid likes to play,” Francona said.

Arenado led off the ninth with a game-tying home run off of Reds closer Emilio Pagán, who entered in the eighth after Tony Santillan allowed a pair of runs to cut the Reds’ lead to one.

(Photo: Jeff Roberson / Associated Press)

This news was originally published on this post .

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