News about Christian Yelich

The slow start to Elly De La Cruz's 2024 season ended abruptly on Monday as the Cincinnati Reds infielder registered a pair of very different home runs: A dazzling inside-the-park effort and a 450-foot bomb that briefly looked destined for the banks of the Ohio River. The homers are the first two of the current campaign for De La Cruz, who has been criticized in 2024 for everything from his defense to his poor pitch selection. The 22-year-old native Dominican lifted his average to a healthy .297 with three hits in Monday's dramatic 10-8 win over the division-rival Milwaukee Brewers. He also stole his sixth base of the season - better than all but Brewers second baseman Brice Turang's seven. But nothing on Monday could quite compare to De La Cruz's electric inside-the-park home run.

We've arrived halfway through the 2023 Major League Baseball season, and the old rules haven't been followed. The Cardinals and Padres are a mess, the Marlins and Orioles are raging into the playoffs, and anyone who made a pre-season forecast of the Mets or Yankees is rubbing their eyes in disbelief. Two and a half months remain for teams to sort themselves out for the pennant chase, and as the regular season hits pause and MLB heads to Seattle for the All-Star Break, Mail Sport grades all 30 teams on their 2023 campaign so far:

In the third inning of Thursday's opening day match against the Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago right-hander Marcus Stroman committed his first pitch-clock offence. With no outs, rookie Brice Turang on second base, and Christian Yelich at the plate, plate umpire Ron Kulpa called the offence on Stroman at Wrigley Field. When announcing the call, Kulpa waved to his wrist, and Yelich's automatic ball made it a 2-2 draw. To keep the game on a tempo this season, MLB introduced the pitch clock this season. Players have 30 seconds to return to play against batters.