De La Cruz took Pirates starter Andrew Heaney deep with a no-doubter to left field in the third inning for his second career grand slam. It was his third round-tripper of the season and wound up being his lone hit in four at-bats in a relatively low-scoring contest at hitter-friendly Great American Ball Park. The 23-year-old X-factor is still striking out close to 30 percent of the time, but it won’t make a significant difference for fantasy purposes, especially if his elite power/speed combo remains intact.

Given some of the offensive lines in week one, maybe it’s a Torpedo baseball, too? It’s De La Cruz’s fourth career two-homer game, and the seven RBI are a career high. Even his lone out today was hit 355 feet, and all five of his balls in play were hit least 99 mph. De La Cruz is the first Red to drive in seven runs since Tyler Naquin and Nick Castellanos did so in 2021.

The 23-year-old superstar opened the scoring in the first inning with an RBI double off of Vince Velazquez. He then advanced to third on a ground ball and scampered home on a wild pitch. De La Cruz tacked on a run-scoring single in the third inning and raced around to score on an RBI double by Austin Hays. He has looked as dynamic as ever this spring, hitting .409 (18-for-44) with four homers, 12 RBI and six stolen bases, which is why he’s a consensus top five selection in all fantasy drafts.

The homer off Kris Bubic was his first since Feb. 26, but De La Cruz is still hitting .410/.521/.795 on the spring. The Reds apparently plan on batting him third behind Matt McLain this year. He spent most of last season hitting second, but Terry Francona is much more of a have-your-best-hitter-bat-third kind of manager.