How superstar Elly De La Cruz has gotten even better | BBTN Pod

Baseball Tonight with Buster Olney

ESPN Radio

Sports

3.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2026

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Reds Manager Terry Francona joins the show to discuss Elly De La Cruz's improvements this year, what has made rookie Sal Stewart so special early on, and why Boston is such a brutal place to leave as a manager. Then Hunter Pence swings by to talk about two Japanese "rookies" who are lighting up the big leagues: Munetaka Murakami with the White Sox and Kazuma Okamoto with the Blue Jays. He also discusses the biggest threat to the Dodgers' crown and why the Giants have struggled to start the year. We end by giving our tribute to the legendary broadcast, John Sterling. 0:00 Welcome 0:52 Yankees are surging 1:03 Braves have best record but lose Acuna 1:22 Twins SP Joe Ryan leaves with injury 1:38 Yankees option Anthony Volpe to AAA 2:03 Giants calling up Bryce Eldridge 2:24 Welcome Terry Francona 2:45 Elly De La Cruz is getting even better 6:00 What makes Sal Stewart so good 7:24 Hunter Greene injury update 8:07 NL Central is best division in baseball 9:02 Reacting to Alex Cora's firing, why is Boston so brutal? 12:27 Hunter Pence joins the show 12:52 Munetaka Murakami can't stop hitting HRs 15:02 Kazuma Okamoto has established a unique tradition 18:56 Who can challenge the Dodgers? 20:48 Giants early-season struggles 22:19 Taylor baby update! 23:13 Remembering John Sterling Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by Expedia and Visit Scotland.
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0:13.6	Discover castles steeped in legend.
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0:23.2	Start planning your own Scottish holiday.
0:25.7	Today at Expedia.com.uk slash visit Scotland.
0:31.3	This is the baseball tonight podcast for Monday, May 4th, 2020.
0:37.3	And today will be better than yesterday. This is brought to you
0:40.4	by Lakeinta by Wyndham. Tonight, Lakinta, tomorrow you shine. I'm Buster Only. We've got a
0:47.6	great podcast today. Reds manager Terry Francona is going to join us to talk about Ellie De La Cruz
0:52.6	and why it always seems to end badly for managers in Boston.
0:56.8	We'll be talking with Hunter Pence about two emerging superstar rookies from Japan.
1:01.9	And just before we started taping, we got word about the passing of the legendary broadcaster John Sterling.
1:09.3	He, of course, long time with the Atlanta Braves, long time with the New York
1:12.9	Yankees. I've got some thoughts about that later in the show. Top of the first is brought to you by
1:19.8	Lakeinta by Wyndham. The Yankees took the first three games of their series against the Baltimore Orioles.
1:26.2	They are rolling. Their offense
1:28.2	is piling up big runs these days. They've got the best record in the American League. The Atlanta
1:33.3	Braves hammered Colorado over the weekend. They are now 25 and 10. That's the best record in
1:39.2	Major League Baseball. But they did lose Ronald O'Cunia, Jr. to a hamstring injury, a grade one hamstring
1:46.0	injury on Saturday. The Braves feel like they dodged a bullet with how this played out. With the
	...

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