Elly De La Cruz nets 6 RBI as Cincinnati Reds beat Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels

Elly De La Cruz gave the Cincinnati Reds the lead for good in the first game of their Wednesday doubleheader against the Los Angeles Angels, poking a 3-run homer off lefty Tyler Anderson to give the good guys a 4-3 lead. They’d eventually turn that into a 9-4 victory thanks, in large part, to a bases-clearing double by Elly later in the game, and in the process they claimed yet another road series win.

They entered play having gone an absurd 27-12 in their last 39 road games, and pushed that to 28-12 with the day game victory.

It came in a game in which the starters on the day did not have their best stuff, surprisingly. For the Reds, that was in the form of Andrew Abbott, who exited after 75 laborious pitches in which time he walked 4, allowed 5 hits, and surrendered 3 ER in just 4+ IP. For the Angels, it was a double-whammy - superstar Shohei Ohtani exited after just 1.1 IP as his velocity was way, way down, and that removed his potent bat from their lineup after he socked an early 2-run homer off Abbott to initially seize the lead.

The Reds did get themselves into some jams, however, as they allowed 11 hits and 6 walks on the day, but they managed to pitch themselves out of trouble more often than not. The Reds, meanwhile, capitalized on 7 walks by Angels pitching - Elly doing the heavy lifting - with Spencer Steer (3 hits, 2 ribbies) helping chase Matt McLain (single, 2 BB, 4 runs scored) across the plate early and often.

These two clubs will run things back later this evening, with yet another 9:38 PM ET start time on the slate. The Reds will likely lean on their bullpen and 27th man Lyon Richardson to get them through that one, a game that - if won - would give them another road sweep.