Usually a shortstop, Elly De La Cruz served as the Reds' designated hitter on Sunday. Not only did De La Cruz put baseballs into flight with his bat against the Brewers, he flashed some avian trapping and fowling skills to nab a troubled bird unable to get back in the air. It was all in a day’s work during a 12-8 win over Milwaukee at Great American Ball Park. De La Cruz provided four RBIs in the victory, including a two-run home run in the fourth inning and a go-ahead two-run double in the bottom of the fifth. “How about that? He does it all," manager Terry Francona said about De La Cruz catching the bird. As the Brewers' Jackson Chourio batted in the top of the fourth inning, a wayward bird parked on the infield grass in Reds starting pitcher Brady Singer's line of vision. Timeout was called, and the seemingly injured bird was surrounded by Singer, first-base umpire Chris Guccione and a Reds bat boy, but the bird struggled to take flight. The bat boy made an ill-fated attempt to shoo the bird off the field with his helmet. Then, Singer looked like he was about to attempt to scoop the bird up with his glove. Suddenly, De La Cruz emerged from the dugout and like the shortstop he is, took command of the situation like it was a routine pop-up. He called off Singer and the bat boy, gave a brief pursuit before grabbing the bird with his batting glove-covered hands and took it off the field. “I saw the guys struggling with it, so I went out and got it," De La Cruz said. De La Cruz received some applause and was seen laughing in the dugout as play resumed. “I guess it was hurt, I don’t know," Singer said of the bird. "I tried to get him off there. I would have just picked him up, but Elly came out and grabbed it. I thought he’d fly away, but he wouldn’t.” Until that point, the Brewers were hitless. That changed when Jake Bauers hit a two-run homer to cut Cincinnati's lead to 4-2. By the end of the fourth-inning rally, the Reds led by one run. However, in the bottom of the fourth inning and batting righty against lefty pitcher Kyle Harrison, De La Cruz came through again. He slugged his 23rd home run of the season, a two-run drive to right-center field that gave the Reds a 6-3 lead.
