The Cincinnati Reds faced off against the Washington Nationals on Wednesday in a game that featured an extremely bizarre interaction between the umpires in the game and Reds star shortstop Elly De La Cruz.
De La Cruz came to the plate to lead off the top of the second inning, but was instantly greeted by home-plate umpire Quinn Wolcott.
Wolcott was asked by Nationals’ manager Dave Martinez to check the legality of De La Cruz’s bat, specifically the knob end of the bat. Every umpire came over to examine the bat, and it was ultimately determined that the bat could not be used due to the larger-than-usual knob end of the bat.
The Reds broadcaster team detailed that De La Cruz has been using this style of bat throughout his young MLB career, which makes this random check in this at-bat pretty bizarre. Even more confusing is that he was later actually allowed to put the knob end back on the bat.
He would get out in that first at-bat, but he ultimately got the last laugh against both the Nationals and the umpires in the game.
De La Cruz stepped back up to the plate for the third time in the bottom of the sixth inning, crushing a 455-foot home run with a 111.6 MPH exit velocity.
The new bat clearly didn’t bother him, and he made sure to let Quinn Wolcott know about it. After crushing the moonshot home run, he hilariously gestured back to the home-plate umpire to check his bat again.
Fans took notice of the gesture and thought that it was absolutely hilarious.
It clearly doesn’t matter what kind of bat Elly De La Cruz has, he is simply crushing baseballs with ease at the moment.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.