CINCINNATI — In the seventh inning of Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Royals, the Cincinnati Reds trailed 4-1 and had the bases loaded, but in shortstop Elly De La Cruz they had the batter they wanted at the plate.

After falling behind 2-0, the second-year shortstop failed to chase down Lucas Erceg’s slider in the dirt, which was ruled a ball. He then saw another pitch below the zone, but on this one, home plate umpire Will Little slapped the air with his left hand, signaling a third strike.

De La Cruz, who had tracked the ball to the catcher’s glove, looked back and saw the decision. Then he put his hand on his hip and looked at the ground.

“I can’t do anything differently,” said De La Cruz after his team’s 7-1 defeat. “I can’t change my plan because of that.”

It was the eighth time this season that he was ruled out for a pitch below the zone, the second-most in baseball this year. Only Michael Toglia of the Colorado Rockies, who is 6-foot-5 like De La Cruz, has been ruled out for more pitches below the zone.

According to Major League Baseball’s Statcast numbers, in Tuesday’s games, 38 of the 746 pitches De La Cruz has seen this season have been below the strike zone but counted as strikes, ranking him 10th among all baseball players with at least 500 pitches seen this season.

While the leader in this category is 5’10” Andrew McCutchen, he is the only one in the top 10 who is under 6’10”. Of those in the top 10, half are 6’2″ or taller, including George Springer (6’3″) of Toronto, Gunnar Henderson (6’3″) of Baltimore, Bryan De La Cruz (6’2″) and Oneil Cruz (6’5″) of Pittsburgh, and Elly De La Cruz.

“It’s tough. As a hitter, your plan is to look in the strike zone and then you get knocked out on those deep hits,” Cruz said through an interpreter. “There’s nothing you can do about it except go back in the box and fight. It definitely doesn’t feel good to get knocked out on those pitches.”

Nobody knows this better than 6-foot-4 Aaron Judge. From 2017 to 2023, no player has had more pitches above the plate and below the zone counted as strikes than the 100 that were counted against him.

“You try in your own way to make the umpires aware of this situation,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who has been Judge’s manager since 2018. “I think we’ve seen something change with Judge over the last year and beyond. I feel like the umpires are adapting over time.”

It’s no secret to umpires that Judge is big, and while you’d expect to give him the benefit of the doubt, he ranks ninth among players this year with 38 pitches below the strike zone that were ruled strikes. However, in Tuesday’s games, Judge has seen 958 pitches, four percent of which were thrown below the zone but ruled strikes. That percentage is the lowest of his career. Aside from the 2020 season, when Judge recorded just 114 at-bats, and his rookie year in 2017, the percentage of pitches below the strike zone that were ruled strikes has declined every season.

Judge’s chase rate has declined over the past four seasons. In his rookie year, he chased 22.8 percent of the pitches he saw outside the zone. That number peaked in 2021, when he was at 23.7 percent. This year, he has hit 19.2 percent of pitches outside the strike zone, which is a career low.

Elly De La Cruz also improved from 32.8 percent to 26.1 percent in his second year, above the MLB average of 28.5 percent.

“I remember Joe (Votto) always saying in years past it’s hard to argue if you don’t know the strike zone,” Reds manager Freddie Benavides said. “You have to know the strike zone before you argue with the umpire and tell him you know it. He’s at that point, he knows his strike zone and he’s going to start getting some of those calls.”

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But arguing is part of the game, albeit in a respectful way. De La Cruz has shown more emotion and spoken more to the referees in his second year, which Benavides said is part of his development.

De La Cruz has not yet crossed any boundaries that would have led to his dismissal. The same cannot be said of his manager.

Earlier this month, Reds manager David Bell passed Sparky Anderson for the most ejections in franchise history with 31. In the game against the Marlins, De La Cruz was called out by home plate umpire Bill Miller for a pitch that was below the zone, ending an inning. De La Cruz briefly talked with Miller but then went back to the dugout. Then Bell came out and was ejected after saying three words – “Bill” and “that’s done.”

“I’ve tried a lot of different things – everything I do is not allowed,” Bell noted last weekend. “It’s nothing intentional. Elly is a different type of player. His size makes him very different. Everyone tries to do their best.”

— The athletes Eno Sarris contributed to this report.

(Photo by Elly De La Cruz: Kirk Irwin/Getty Images)