CINCINNATI -- For those wondering why manager Terry Francona isn't giving shortstop Elly De La Cruz a full day off, look no further than Tuesday's 3-0 Reds’ loss to the Cardinals.
Indeed, De La Cruz has been mired in a 4-for-42 (.095) funk in 11 games since Aug. 8. He's been prone to errors and added another one in the second inning Tuesday that made it six this month. But for as much as Cincinnati's offense has struggled with De La Cruz in the lineup, try imagining the lineup Francona would have to make without him.
“When you make out the lineup and you don’t put Elly in it … we’re just doing the best we can," Francona said before Tuesday's game without filling in the obvious blank. "But if I feel like he needs [a day], he'll get one."
For a partial break, De La Cruz was the designated hitter for Game 2 of a doubleheader Monday and had two hits, including the walk-off RBI double in the bottom of the 10th inning for a 6-5 victory. Overall, he's leading the club with a .259 average and .811 OPS while hitting 20 home runs and 57 RBIs in 107 games.
Francona moved De La Cruz into the leadoff spot June 27, and he's been there for each of Cincinnati's past 46 games. Rookie Sal Stewart was moved up to batting second. On Tuesday, the duo went a combined 1-for-8 with Stewart – the team leader with 26 homers and 91 RBIs – getting a first-inning single.
Overall, the team had only three hits.
The Reds are 30th out of 30 Major League clubs this season with a .226 team batting average and .305 on-base percentage.
While losing eight of its past 12 games, Cincinnati has been held to one or fewer runs six times.
Reds pitcher Andrew Abbott knows a little something about unrewarded strong performances. Tuesday marked the third time this season that the left-hander worked a quality start while his team was shut out.
Abbott gave up two runs on four hits and two walks over 6 1/3 innings with six strikeouts while throwing 98 pitches -- including 68 strikes. Early on, he was pumping strikes at an incredible rate with 17 in a row to open the game and 23 of 25 through two innings. Overall he threw first-pitch strikes to 17 of his 26 batters.
“That was the mission tonight, to be in the zone, get ahead of guys, make them swing at what I want to throw when I want to throw it," Abbott said. “I had a joking conversation two days ago on the bench [where] I was like, ‘What would happen if you threw 80 percent strikes in the game?’ Would it be good results, bad results or whatever?
"I think I kind of took it to heart and was like, ‘Let’s go try it. Let’s just try to throw everything across the plate and make them beat me.’”
With two outs in the second inning after Abbott retired each of his first five batters, De La Cruz fielded a Blaze Jordan grounder, but his high throw forced Stewart to jump off the bag to grab for an error. Abbott gave up a double to next hitter Masyn Winn but escaped while throwing six extra pitches.
Eight in a row were retired by Abbott before Winn got a 1-1 pitch and hit it into the left-field seats for a homer and 1-0 Cardinals lead in the fifth inning.
“Up and in. He just got to it. Tip your cap when that happens," said Abbott, who is 6-8 with a 4.07 ERA in 26 starts this season.
Two walks followed, but Abbott worked out of the jam. With 90 pitches after six innings, Abbott returned but gave up back-to-back doubles to Winn and Jose Fermín for another run before he exited for reliever Zach Maxwell.
“I thought Abbott was really good," Francona said. "He was filling the strike zone up with all his pitches. We’ve got to find a way to score some runs for him.”