Fastball

Cincinnati Reds' Elly De La Cruz Has Bat Checked By Washington Nationals, Homers Later

A bizarre scene unfolded on Wednesday night in the Washington Nationals and Cincinnati Reds game as Nationals manager Davey Martinez had the umpires check the bat handle of Elly De La Cruz.

Brady Farkas

Cincinnati Reds' Elly De La Cruz Has Bat Checked By Washington Nationals, Homers Later
Cincinnati Reds' Elly De La Cruz Has Bat Checked By Washington Nationals, Homers Later /
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A bizarre scene unfolded on Wednesday night in the game between the Washington Nationals and Cincinnati Reds as Nationals manager Davey Martinez had the umpires check the bat handle of Reds star Elly De La Cruz.

You can watch the scene in its entirety here, but in this at-bat, De La Cruz was told the handle on the knob of his bat couldn't be used.

It took the broadcast team a while to figure out what was going on and the umpires struggled with it as well, even calling to New York to get a ruling. The knob handle was taken out of play but later in the game, De La Cruz was allowed to use it - and then homered. You can notice the little celebration below as well.

For De La Cruz, that was his fourth home run of the season. At the time of this posting, the Reds lead the Nationals, 6-1, in the top of the seventh inning. De La Cruz is 1-for-4 with the homer. He's now hitting .306 this season. 

In addition to his performance, the Reds have gotten a home run from Joey Votto, who is 3-for-4.

If the Reds are able to hold on and win this game, they'll move to 48-39 on the season. They entered play 1.0 game ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central.

The Reds will finish out the series with the Nationals on Thursday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. ET as Brandon Williamson (CIN) pitches against MacKenzie Gore (WAS).

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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