Elly De La Cruz nearly homered in his first at-bat of Monday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers, but was robbed on a great catch by Milwaukee centerfielder, Joey Wiemer. In his second at-bat, De La Cruz homered.
But the story here isn’t really Wiemer’s great catch or De La Cruz’s home run. The real story is about what happened between the two great plays that ended up being a lesson in karma for the Brewers. Or, at least, whoever runs the video board at Milwaukee’s American Family Field.
Video boards will frequently display factoids about a given player during his at-bat. And if it’s a visiting player, those factoids often lean toward being funny. That’s what the Brewers were going for here.
During De La Cruz’s second at-bat, his “Player Trivia” section read, “Almost hit a home run in the first inning…but didn’t.”
.@UnfortunateMLB pic.twitter.com/l9yuRmGWRX
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) July 25, 2023
And De La Cruz didn’t simply respond by hitting a home run. He hit a home run that nobody on the field could have possibly robbed.
In fact, nobody in the stadium could have caught this ball.
Good luck robbing a ball hit 456 feet.@ellylacocoa18 pic.twitter.com/gdC66uMRm6
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) July 25, 2023
The Baseball Images that Precede Unfortunate Events Twitter account responded to the Reds appropriately.
Ask and you shall receive https://t.co/PG1T0iKeDO
— Baseball Images that Precede Unfortunate Events (@UnfortunateMLB) July 25, 2023
Baseball fans similarly reacted to the poor attempt at trash talk.
Then what happened @Brewers pic.twitter.com/NTTLbJe5sK
— 𝕮𝖔𝖔𝖕® (@OhNoCoop) July 25, 2023
This man lives rent-free in all their heads https://t.co/Pmawkesnqc
— Sara Elyse (@SaraElyse128) July 25, 2023
They messed around and found out https://t.co/8wppcpj74G
— Bally Sports Cincinnati (@BallySportsCIN) July 25, 2023
Um, they poked the bear. #Reds #ATOBTTR https://t.co/eKQcDy8PjA
— Blog Red Machine (@blogredmachine) July 25, 2023
[Cincinnati Reds, Photo Credit: @OhNoCoop on Twitter]
