Elly De La Cruz gave a half-empty, meaningless-in-the-standings Monday night in Cincinnati one moment nobody in the ballpark will forget. In the ninth inning of a game the Reds were already losing, the 24-year-old shortstop turned on a 98.2 mph fastball from Dodgers reliever Evan Phillips and sent it 457 feet, over the bleachers, off the concourse behind the "Power Stacks" in right-center, and out of Great American Ball Park entirely — a feat few hitters ever manage at any stadium.

Statcast measured the blast at 114.1 mph off the bat with a 32-degree launch angle. It was De La Cruz's 27th home run of the season, a new career high that also broke his own franchise record for home runs by a switch-hitter, and it accounted for the Reds' only run in a 4-1 defeat to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

"MAYBE I'LL PICK IT UP ON MY WAY HOME." — Reds manager Terry Francona

A lost season, a singular talent

The homer is the latest entry in what has become a remarkable individual season buried inside a forgettable team one. Cincinnati sits well outside the playoff picture, and De La Cruz has kept doing things the sport rarely sees from a shortstop. Earlier this month he strung together home runs in five straight games — a career high that ties for the second-longest streak in Reds franchise history, behind only Joey Votto's seven-game run in 2021, according to Cincinnati's Local 12. He has now become just the third Reds player ever to post multiple 25-homer, 25-stolen-base seasons, joining Hall of Famer Joe Morgan and Eric Davis, and the first shortstop in major league history to reach 25 homers, 25 steals and 5.0 bWAR before turning 25 — a mark he has now hit in both 2024 and 2026.

De La Cruz's power surge comes as the Reds continue to fade in the National League Central. At 70-80 entering the week, Cincinnati has no realistic path to the postseason, leaving De La Cruz's chase of career and franchise numbers as one of the few remaining storylines of the club's September, a shift confirmed by the current MLB wild-card standings.

The blast itself drew its own reaction in the moment, with the Reds' broadcast booth exclaiming "Watch out, Ohio! It's out of the ballpark!" as the ball cleared the stadium — a rarity even for one of the game's most powerful hitters. It marked the longest home run of De La Cruz's career since a 467-foot drive during his 2023 rookie season, and analysts noted afterward it would have cleared the fences in all 30 major league parks.

The Reds and Dodgers continue their four-game series at Great American Ball Park through midweek, with Los Angeles jockeying for postseason positioning and Cincinnati playing out the string on a lost season. For De La Cruz, who is also hitting .298 with a .924 OPS since the All-Star break, the final two weeks of the schedule are shaping up as a personal showcase even as his team watches October from home.