J.P. Crawford slapped his hands Monday night almost as soon as his feet left the batter’s box. He rounded first base, saw the go-ahead run had scored in a 6-1 win over the Reds and slapped them again.
The shortstop downplayed his struggles when he started the season mired in a wicked slump. But there was no downplaying this. It was obvious that this – a go-ahead single with two outs in the seventh – brought relief. The emotion was obvious. Crawford entered that at-bat hitless in his last 18 at-bats. His liner to right field was just his second hit of the season.