Oneil Cruz of the Pittsburgh Pirates hits a home run in the first inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Saturday, June 22, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)
PITTSBURGH – Oneil Cruz’s tools can be breathtaking.
The arm that lights up the radar gun when throwing from deep. The long legs under his 6-foot-tall body that seemingly carry the Pirates shortstop around the bases in just a few steps.
But nothing is as fascinating as Cruz’s power. His swing is made up of a series of levers that sometimes don’t work in unison.
But when they do so – as they did in the first inning of a 4-3 win over Tampa – any doubts about Cruz’s ability to consistently make a difference disappear and are replaced by amazement.
Tampa Bay’s Zach Eflin tried to fool Cruz with a curveball on the first pitch, and Cruz sent it over the 21-foot Clemente Wall in right field. The ball sailed over the concourse and the slope behind it that leads down to the Allegheny River.
When the ball finally splashed into the water 445 feet from home base, the Pirates had tied the game and Cruz had reminded us that, as much work as he still has ahead of him, he remains one of the most talented and unique players in the major leagues.
This drive marked the sixth time since PNC Park opened in 2001 that a ball spontaneously entered the river, and the 76th overall to enter the water – by impact, rolling or otherwise.
The crowd in the sweltering stadium – the temperature was 35 degrees at the first pitch – roared with joy. The fact that his teammates mostly just shrugged their shoulders says something about the power shows that Cruz regularly puts on before the game.
While rookie pitcher Jared Jones called it “probably the farthest hit ball I’ve ever personally seen,” catcher Jason Delay practically yawned.
“I’ve been watching him hit balls into the river all the time,” Delay said, thinking of batting practice, “so it’s fun to watch him do it.”
Especially when it matters. When asked if he thought the wave would eventually sail over the boats that dock near the ballpark in the summer, Cruz thought for a long time and then shook his head.
“No,” he said after his tenth home run of the season. “But I definitely knew it was a home run.”
This isn’t the first time Cruz has tested the limits of a stadium. When he was at Double-A Altoona, one of his moonshots crashed into the wooden roller coaster “The Skyliner” behind the right outfield wall.
“I knew right away that it was going to be a rollercoaster,” Cruz said with a boyish grin.
The reality with Cruz is that sometimes the game comes easily to him. Everything he does can seem effortless.
“He continues to do really extraordinary things,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton.
The key going forward is to showcase that special ability on a regular basis. Cruz’s home run ended a 1-for-13 losing streak. He has a .242 batting average and his 31 RBIs are a respectable second on the team, especially considering Cruz, 25, missed nearly all of last season with a broken left ankle.
The problem is that the Pirates don’t score nearly enough points to complement a pitching staff that includes up-and-coming 22-year-old aces Jones and Paul Skenes, as well as veteran Mitch Keller, who is hoping for his second consecutive All-Star appearance.
Pittsburgh’s offensive numbers languish in the bottom half of the National League, which is the main reason why the Pirates are dragging themselves forward with a percentage just under .500 near the halfway point of the season.
General manager Ben Cherington spent more than 20 minutes Saturday acknowledging that his team needs to score more runs, but remained vague about how aggressive the Pirates might be in the transfer market.
Cherington believes the easiest way forward is for the players on the roster to perform more regularly. Those six dizzying seconds, when Cruz’s ball took off from a structure and landed not far from the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers, were magnificent.
But what the Pirates don’t need are occasional shots with a tape measure. They need the ball to fly over the fence more often. It doesn’t matter whether it’s one centimeter or 30 centimeters.
“Once it flies over the fence, I don’t care where it lands,” Shelton said. “It really doesn’t matter. As long as it flies right over the yellow barrier, it can land in the front row or in the Allegheny, I don’t care. It counts the same.”
