Ten days is not a long time in baseball. A perfect 10 days doesn’t guarantee you’ll even get close to the playoff hunt. A winless 10 days won’t necessarily keep you out. To watch the Cincinnati Reds, though, is to wonder whether 10 days can change everything.
It started on June 5, when the Reds beat the Milwaukee Brewers behind the debut of starting pitcher Andrew Abbott … and then summoned Elly De La Cruz to the big leagues for the next night’s game. The 21-year-old shortstop — switch-hitting and seemingly spring-loaded — is a consensus top-five prospect in baseball thanks to an astounding combination of power and speed, along with rapid recent improvement in his plate discipline.