Cruz channels frustration into high exit velocities
After an early error, Oneil Cruz slugged the two hardest hits in the Statcast Era at 120 and 121.5 mph.
Oneil Cruz was ticked off about a fielding error on a fly ball that allowed two runs to score in the first inning, so the Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop took out his anger with swing after violent swing.
Cruz made contact that left his teammates in disbelief, delivering the hardest hits by any player in the major leagues this season in becoming the first player in the Statcast Era to record three hits with exit velocities of 115 mph or higher and two of 120 mph or higher.
A double clocked at 121.5mph drove in the game-tying run to cap a four-run ninth inning rally and served as inspiration for Nick Gonzales’ walk-off single in the 10th to propel the Pirates to a 7-6 comeback win over the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night at PNC Park After batting .222/.267/.313 in April, Cruz is hitting .297 with a .937 OPS this month. Cruz leads the National League with 12 extra-base hits in May, and his eight doubles are tied with New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso for the most this month.
“Damn, he’s special man. It’s unbelievable what he can do,” Pirates All-Star closer David Bednar said of the 6-foot-7, 235-pound Cruz. “He’s just a threat, and he’s an enormous part of our lineup and team. The amount of talent he has is crazy.”
That’s what made his first-inning error so frustrating for Cruz. The Giants had runners on first and third with two outs when Wilmer Flores hit a high fly ball to shallow left. Both Cruz and left fielder Jack Suwinski converged on the ball, with Cruz backing into the grass before losing sight of it in the sun as it glanced off his glove. Both Thairo Estrada and Luis Matos scored, giving the Giants a 2-0 lead.
Cruz credited Pirates infield coach Mendy Lopez for his words of advice upon returning to the home dugout: Don’t worry about it. Catch the next one. Turn the page. So Cruz channeled his frustration into hard hits.
“That was it. That helped me a lot through the game,” Cruz said, through translator Stephen Morales. “I was really (ticked) off when I went to hit, and I think that’s part of why I hit it so hard.”
Cruz connnected on Giants right-hander Logan Webb’s 1-1 offering, an 87.8-mph changeup at the bottom of the strike zone, for a line drive down the right field line. The ball ricocheted off the wall, limiting him to a single, but the 120.4-mph exit velocity made it the hardest hit of the season. He was stranded when Connor Joe flied out to left.
In the third, Cruz crushed another low pitch, a 3-1 sinker, for a two-out double to left-center that was clocked at 116.3. Once again, he was left on base, as Joe grounded out.
Cruz went down swinging in the fifth and hit a pop fly in foul territory to first base in the eighth but got another crack when the Pirates rallied against Giants closer Camilo Doval in the ninth.
Trailing by one run and with runners on first and third, Cruz hit a 100.3-mph cutter for another low liner that bounced off the Clemente Wall in right field to score Ji Hwan Bae and tie the game at 6-6. This one had an exit velocity of 121.5 mph, the second-hardest hit of Cruz’s career. (He set a Statcast record, at 122.4 mph, against Atlanta on Aug. 24, 2022.)
“Amazing,” Bae said, in awe of his locker mate. “Somebody has to have a full swing to hit the ball that hard, but he’s always sometimes catching it out front, with the one hand. The 122 is just unfair. Unbelievable.”
