Cincinnati is off to the kind of start that makes the rest of the National League Central take notice. The Reds throttled Milwaukee 12-8 on Sunday, turning what was expected to be a tight early-season measuring stick into another laugher, and Elly De La Cruz was the driving force behind it.
De La Cruz was simply on another planet all afternoon, racking up 53.0 fantasy points to headline a Cincinnati offense that never let up. The shortstop's blend of power and speed has been on display all week against Milwaukee, and Sunday was his signature performance yet — the kind of afternoon that turns a divisional series into a statement.
He wasn't alone. Juan Brito continued his strong week with 35.0 fantasy points, giving the Reds a second bat that Milwaukee's pitching staff simply had no answer for. Dane Myers chipped in 29.5 points out of center field, and Sal Stewart added 29.0 more at first base. When you tack on HĂ©ctor RodrĂguez's 25.0-point day in right, it becomes clear this wasn't a one-man show — it was a lineup that clicked from top to bottom. Tyler Stephenson (19.0) and Eugenio Suárez (16.5) rounded out the production, giving Cincinnati contributions from seven different spots in the order.
Milwaukee didn't go quietly. Jake Bauers was excellent at first base, posting 42.5 fantasy points in the loss, and Brice Turang wasn't far behind with 33.0 of his own. Garrett Mitchell added 28.5 points in center, and for stretches it looked like the Brewers might have enough firepower to steal this one. But the difference came down to depth. Once you got past Bauers, Turang and Mitchell, Milwaukee's lineup went quiet in a hurry — Grant Anderson's 14.7 points out of the bullpen were the next-best mark on the roster, and regulars like Jackson Chourio (9.5), Christian Yelich (7.5), Bo Naylor (7.5) and Cooper Pratt (7.3) simply couldn't keep pace with what Cincinnati was doing across the diamond.
That gap in secondary production has been the story of this early-season set. Look at the form both clubs carried into Sunday: Cincinnati had won four of its last five, including a win over this same Milwaukee club two nights earlier, with the only blemish a 7-10 loss sandwiched between victories. Milwaukee, meanwhile, has been streaky in this series, unable to string together the kind of sustained pressure Cincinnati has shown. Sunday's 12-8 result fits neatly into that pattern. The Reds have simply been the more complete team through the opening week, and their lineup is finding paydirt in more spots than Milwaukee's is.
For a Week 1 measuring stick, this one carries real weight. Cincinnati's ability to win a slugfest — trading haymakers and coming out ahead 12-8 — says as much about their pitching staff's resilience as it does about their bats. Getting outscored is one thing; navigating a track meet and still finishing on top suggests a club capable of grinding out wins even when the stuff isn't sharp. That's a good sign heading into the rest of the month.
Milwaukee, on the other hand, has to find secondary offense in a hurry. Bauers and Turang can't do it alone every night, and if Chourio and Yelich remain this quiet, the Brewers are going to keep bleeding runs against clubs with the kind of top-to-bottom balance Cincinnati just displayed. The talent is there — Mitchell's speed and Bauers' power are proven commodities — but this early series has exposed a real gap in the middle of Milwaukee's order that needs fixing before the schedule gets tougher.
For now, the early-season tone is set. Cincinnati looks like the sharper, deeper club, and De La Cruz looks like a shortstop capable of taking over a game whenever he wants. If you had him anchoring your JockBroker lineup Sunday, you were in good shape.
