Cincinnati Reds Benched Elly De La Cruz for Jonathan India

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — There may have been 30 people inside Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday with a view of the field, including a couple of workers who were busy hosing off seats hours before the game, yet all would occasionally turn to see where the ball landed when they heard the crack of the bat.

Inside the cage, hat flipped backward a la Ken Griffey Jr. and with a left-handed swing nearly as sweet, was the hottest thing to hit baseball in quite some time. Elly De La Cruz pounded ropes into the stadium’s massive alleys and soared shots that rattled around in the outfield seats or splashed into the stadium fountains.

An hour later, De La Cruz finally walked toward the visiting dugout with a few of his Cincinnati Reds teammates.

It was 2:58 p.m. First pitch was still more than four hours away.

Rarely do players widely considered baseball’s top prospect exceed expectations from Day 1. But even rarer is a talent like De La Cruz, the 21-year-old switch-hitting infielder whose first week in the major was the stuff of legend.