'Nobody does that': How Cincinnati Red Elly De La Cruz pulled off another impossible feat

MILWAUKEE — Before he’d been in the big leagues for a month, Elly De La Cruz joined a film crew to shoot a trailer for Tom Cruise’s latest “Mission; Impossible” movie.

Seriously.

The trailer was released this week.

Which was news to his Cincinnati Reds manager, David Bell, whose surprise left him “speechless” when he learned about it early Saturday afternoon.

But if anybody thought that was impressive, or thought that clip of Cruise driving a motorcycle over a cliff was breathtaking – or thought anything you’ve seen in the entire “Mission: Impossible” franchise was actually impossible – then get a load of what De La Cruz did in real life in the seventh inning of his 29th game in a major-league uniform on Saturday in Milwaukee.

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“Nobody does that,” 17th-year veteran Joey Votto said.

Nobody? Maybe that should be De La Cruz’s new nickname for as many times as people have said some version of Votto’s comment since the kid broke into the majors on June 6 as the second-youngest – and perhaps most spectacular – position player in the game.

On this day, he did something to help beat the Milwaukee Brewers that hadn’t been done by a Red in 104 years – and hadn’t been done by anyone in the sport in 54 years.

After slapping a run-scoring single the opposite way to drive in the go-ahead run, De La Cruz then stole second base on the next pitch, third base on the pitch after that – without drawing a throw – and then stole home when downcast pitcher Elvis Peguera turned his back and ignored the fastest sprinter in MLB to walk slowly back to the mound.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever been around someone after they stole third, where I’m going to give him a high five and say nice job, and he wanted no part of it,” third base coach J.R. House said.

“He just kept creeping toward home plate, and eyeballing the third baseman and the catcher and pitcher, and then he was gone.”

By the time he slid home on a play that wasn’t even close and jumped up for a leaping high-five batter Jake Fraley, every upward emotion in the building belonged to the Reds, and the Brewers might as well have been the walking dead for the final 2 1/2 innings.

And the only question that seemed pertinent was what in this game was left for De La Cruz to show people he can do?

“I have a feeling a lot,” Bell said. “That’s one of those plays that’s so rare I don’t know if it’s ever happened, especially on two pitches.”

The last time a Red stole second, third and home during a single at-bat, the guy’s name was Greasy Neale, in 1919. It also happened in 1910 and 1908.

The last Red to pull off a straight steal of home was Brandon Phillips in 2009.

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And according to ESPN stat guru Sarah Langs, De La Cruz is only the second player since at least the start of the expansion era (1961) to steal all three bases in a single at-bat, joining Hall of Famer Rod Carew of the Minnesota Twins in 1969.

“He’s ridiculous. I didn’t think I’d ever see anybody steal home in a big-league game,” teammate Will Benson said. “And then he did that in two pitches in one at-bat.

“The things he does on the field are unbelievable. He’s 21. That’s where it gets freakish,” Benson added. “I’m 25. But damn. He’s 21 doing that. That’s a whole different level. He’s going to be doing that for hopefully 20 years.”

He’s already got a list of eye-popping accomplishments in the first 29 games in addition to Saturday’s 270 feet of chaos:

• A 458-foot home run in his second big-league game

• A pair of four-hit performances

• The first cycle by a Reds player in 34 years

• At least one 97-mph throw to first base

• The top timed sprint speed in the majors

• 16 stolen bases (two CS) that already have him ranked among the NL’s top 10

• A head-first slide for a single in Houston that beat the first baseman who had fielded the sharp grounder with a dive barely 10 feet behind the bag

• An invitation to the All-Star Home Run Derby (which he declined)

• The hardest-hit balls among Reds players this season

• And on Wednesday a 455-foot, line-drive home run against the Washington Nationals after their manager had the umpires delay the game to question whether a pre-approved sleeve on the knob of his bat was legal.

“We need to ship him off to outer space and let him play in his own league,” teammate Nick Senzel said.

What made Saturday’s exploits in Milwaukee especially impressive was the way he looked for the opportunity to steal home – which he’d done twice in the minors – as soon as he coasted into third standing up.

“The speed is obvious, just elite speed like we maybe have never seen,” Bell said. “But also how heads-up it was. He rounded third on a stolen base. You don’t ever really see that. We knew something was about to happen, but we weren’t sure [what].”

House has been treated to a new reality in his job when De La Cruz is on the bases – the rookie often ignoring the third base coach altogether and succeeding even when he runs through stop signs.

“I definitely am less useful when he’s there,” House said, “that is for sure.”

If by making the bases larger this year and limiting pitchers’ pickoff moves was meant by MLB officials to increase the action and excitement on the bases for paying customers, then De La Cruz looks like the face, legs and thumping heart of that purpose.

And probably deserves a significant pay raise for what he’s doing for the game.

Because it’s hard to imagine another player in the game in recent history built better for the new rules and that sales pitch.

“I mentioned this when he first got here,” said Votto, who compared De La Cruz to a “young Mickey Mantle” a couple weeks ago. “We’re going to see things that you just do not see on a baseball field. That power-speed combination, the flair for the dramatic. He’s just got that big-moment compass right in the center of his personality, his skill set. He has everything.”

Votto recalled being a Toronto Raptors fan in his hometown when that franchise started about the time Votto turned 12.

“I remember cheering for Antonio Davis,” he said. “Damon Stoudamire was my favorite player when the franchise first started. And then we drafted a player by the name of Vince Carter.

“And every single day I tuned in – we tuned in, the city tuned in – he did something special,” Votto added. “And that is exactly who (De La Cruz) reminds me of.

“He reminds me of ‘Vinsanity,’ ‘Air Canada Carter.’ We’re going to have to come up with some sweet nicknames for him because the dude is worthy of anything you give him.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How Cincinnati Reds' Elly De La Cruz pulled off the impossible again