Elly De La Cruz, Reds heating up entering finale vs. Rays

The first two months of the season were a struggle offensively for Elly De La Cruz.

The Cincinnati Reds' All-Star shortstop was slashing .239/.315/.406 over April and May and had struck out 68 times.

Then June hit, and De La Cruz has been in a groove ever since -- compiling a .327/.417/1.088 slash line while striking out 37 times over the past two months. He will look to keep that going when the Reds bid for the sweep against the visiting Tampa Bay Rays in the finale of a three-game set on Sunday afternoon.

In his past 13 games, he's slashing .362/.483/.553 to raise his season batting average to .285 with a .365 on-base percentage and .490 slugging percentage. De La Cruz came through in the clutch on Saturday with a go-ahead two-run single in the seventh inning against reliever Garrett Cleavinger as the Reds won 6-2.

"The patience that he has, he's seeing the ball real well over the last couple weeks, or the last couple months, actually," Reds bench coach Freddie Benavides told the Cincinnati Enquirer. "For him to put it in play, especially against one of their top left-handed relievers, so, it was a great at-bat and great things happen when you put it in play."

That's helped the Reds win nine of their past 13 games and stay in the thick of the race for a playoff spot. They go into Sunday one game out of the final wild-card berth in the National League.

"We're playing really good baseball right now," said Reds pitcher Andrew Abbott, who started Saturday. "I think we kind of sat down and had a discussion as a team where we're just kind of like, let's keep stacking series wins. Let's control the things that we can control. Obviously, trying to put ourselves in a situation to be buyers, to be in the playoffs and we're right on the door knocking. We're really just trying to focus on the things that we can do."

Brady Singer (7-8, 4.84 ERA) will start the series for Cincinnati. The right-hander is 1-2 with a 4.13 ERA in 32 2/3 innings over six career starts against Tampa Bay.

The Rays will counter with righty Shane Baz (8-6, 4.66) as they try to snap out of a skid that has seen them lose three in a row and 16 of their last 22.

They find themselves 2 1/2 games out of the final wild-card spot in the American League and 10 games back of the East-leading Toronto Blue Jays. The Rays know that changes to the clubhouse could be coming.

"Especially this time of year, everybody in here wants to stay together. We know what the deadline brings, too," shortstop Taylor Walls said. "Not winning just puts a lot more pressure on the front office. And nobody in here wants that.

"So, of course, there's always urgency," Walls continued. "Especially, I mean, this ballclub, this organization, there's urgency to win every day we're out there. ... It's just everybody feels it is getting to be that time of the year."

After four straight quality starts, Baz gave up eight runs on eight hits over four innings in his last outing, an 8-3 loss to the visiting Chicago White Sox on July 21. He is 0-1 with a 9.72 ERA in 8 1/3 innings over two career starts against the Reds.

--Field Level Media