De La Cruz moonshot

Elly De La Cruz hit a 442-foot home run for Cincinnati on April 15, sending a ball 109.3 miles per hour off his bat into center field. (mlb.com) Major League Baseball’s Statcast system logged the swing at 78.2 miles per hour, and the homer came in the fourth inning against San Francisco right-hander Tyler Mahle. (mlb.com) The blast came on Jackie Robinson Day at Great American Ball Park, where Cincinnati beat San Francisco 2-1 and improved to 10-7. San Francisco fell to 6-11. (mlb.com) (espn.in) A 442-foot homer stands out even in a sport built around power because Statcast measures both distance and how hard the ball was hit. De La Cruz’s 2026 average exit velocity sits at 94.7 miles per hour, in the 96th percentile, according to Baseball Savant. (baseballsavant.mlb.com) The swing also fit the player De La Cruz has become since his 2023 debut: a shortstop with top-end speed and middle-of-the-order power. Through 77 plate appearances this season, he had 5 home runs, 5 stolen bases and a.908 on-base plus slugging percentage. (baseballsavant.mlb.com) Baseball Savant lists De La Cruz at 6-foot-6 and 200 pounds, and its percentile rankings put him among the sport’s better runners as well as one of its harder hitters. That combination is why a single swing from him can travel across league highlight feeds within hours. (baseballsavant.mlb.com) The home run was his sixth of the season, according to Major League Baseball’s game clip, and it pushed Cincinnati’s lead to 8-2 in the inning shown on the video package. The same clip identified the opponent as the Giants and the date as April 15, 2026. (mlb.com) For Cincinnati, the bigger pattern is that De La Cruz has kept producing after back-to-back seasons with at least 22 home runs. By April 16, Baseball Savant showed his expected weighted on-base average at.388 and his expected slugging percentage at.538. (baseballsavant.mlb.com) The clip lasts 33 seconds. The ball flight lasted much less than that. (mlb.com)