De La Cruz Buries Milwaukee With 4 RBI as Reds Roll 12-8

Elly De La Cruz went 2-for-4 with a home run and 4 RBI, and Cincinnati turned a chaotic, error-riddled afternoon into a 12-8 win over Milwaukee on September 6. The Reds needed every bit of it — Milwaukee clawed back to tie the game at 6 in the fifth before Cincinnati pulled away for good.

Cincinnati jumped out fast and didn't let up early. Tyler Stephenson singled home a run in the first, and the Reds kept piling on through the second and third — a throwing error by Milwaukee's third baseman Hamilton, a sacrifice fly, and a Juan Brito double to center made it 4-0 before Milwaukee had even scratched the scoreboard. Brito finished 3-for-4 with 3 runs scored, and Hector Rodriguez went 3-for-5 with 2 runs — the kind of lineup depth that makes a 12-run output look less like a fluke and more like a statement.

Milwaukee refused to fold. Jake Bauers launched a 408-foot two-run shot to right center in the fourth to cut it to 4-2, and a sacrifice bunt turned chaotic when a Singer throwing error let Turang reach third and score, making it 4-3. Then De La Cruz answered immediately — a 402-foot home run to right center pushed Cincinnati back to 6-3. The fifth inning was the game's wildest stretch: Milwaukee scored three times, capped by Brice Turang's two-run double to right that knotted it at 6-6 and swung Cincinnati's win probability from 70% all the way down to 42%. That was the moment the game genuinely hung in the balance. Cincinnati's response was immediate and decisive — De La Cruz doubled to center to score two more, Stephenson added an infield single for a third run in the inning, and just like that the Reds had rebuilt a 9-6 lead before the sixth inning began.

The eighth inning put it out of reach. Rodriguez singled home a run, and then Hamilton — Milwaukee's third baseman — committed his second error of the game, this time on a fielder's choice that allowed two more Cincinnati runs to score and pushed the lead to 12-7. Turang singled home Bauers in the ninth to make the final 12-8, but it was cosmetic. Brady Singer's line tells the story of Milwaukee's pitching woes: 5.0 innings, 6 earned runs, and 6 walks. That's a performance that makes a comeback nearly impossible to sustain. The story of the afternoon, though, was De La Cruz — 4 RBI, a home run, and the double that broke Milwaukee's back in the fifth. When the game needed a killer instinct, he provided it.