After a handful of days off to rest and regroup, the Cincinnati Reds hit the ground running on Friday as the second half of their 2026 season began. It helped that they landed in Denver to face the woeful Colorado Rockies, but they wasted little time in establishing that they were still here on business, swatting four homers behind an excellent start from Brady Singer in what became a 7-2 victory.
Elly De La Cruz immediately got the party started in the Top of the 1st with his first hit of the night, and he scored a batter later when Sal Stewart smashed a double in to the left field gap. Elly poured in a 4 for 5 night that eventually featured a 9th inning homer to wrap the scoring, while Sal drove in his customary pair of runs on the night.
It was the Top of the 6th, though, where things got fun for the Cincinnati offense. Spencer Steer hit his first of two dingers – this one a laser over the wall in LF – only for Eugenio Suarez to flip a pitching wedge over the wall in LF right behind him for back to back shots.
Not to be outdone, Steer smashed a 421 missile off the wall in the deepest part of the Coors Field outfield in the Top of the 8th, and busted it out of the batter’s box the moment he hit it. That proved prescient, as the ball ricocheted off the wall towards LF and gave Steer enough time to motor all the way around the bags for an inside-the-park dinger, his second of the game.
Steer, whose intrigue on the trade market we documented earlier in the week, now sits at .250/.330/.441 with 16 homers and 40 runs batted in, work that’s good for a 109 OPS+ and 108 wRC+ as of this morning. First and foremost, I’m saying that the Cincinnati Reds need to go on a historic, miracle run to finish this season and win some playoff series. Beyond that, though, I’m saying that now may never be a more ‘right’ time to move Steer as he’s playing quite well amid a dearth of right-handed hitting outfield options, with five of the biggest teams in the sport needing just that this trade deadline.
Anyway, the Reds toppled the Rockies and moved to just 8 games under the .500 mark on Friday evening, with a matinee in the extreme heat in Denver set for 3:10 PM ET on Saturday.
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