Oneil Cruz homers into river, Mitch Keller throws 6 scoreless as Pirates pound Mets

The Allegheny River has served as an inviting target for Oneil Cruz, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 6-foot-7 rookie shortstop with left-handed power and Statcast record-setting exit velocities.

Finally, he made a splash.

Cruz crushed a 422-foot home run that cleared the right field seats and bounced into the river in an 8-2 win over the New York Mets to snap a four-game losing streak Tuesday night before 8,817 at PNC Park.

This 113 MPH ???? lands in the water! pic.twitter.com/fe6NtwdjVj

— MLB (@MLB) September 7, 2022

“I’m not going to lie: It’s motivating, knowing that the river is right there,” Cruz said through translator Mike Gonzalez. “Every time I go up to bat and I’m trying to hit the ball toward the right side, I am trying to land it in the river.”

Despite chipping his front tooth off his batting helmet while sliding into second base in the first inning, Cruz went 3 for 5 with two runs and two RBIs and fell a triple short of hitting for the cycle. In his past 10 games, Cruz is batting .282 (11 for 39) with two doubles, two triples, three homers and nine RBIs, with 12 strikeouts and three walks.

“When he gets the ball out front like that, it’s impressive,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “And he had a good night. He did a good job on both sides of the ball, so it was really good to see.”

It was a good night for the Pirates’ young core.

Mitch Keller (5-10) threw six scoreless innings to earn the win. Keller allowed five hits and two walks with two strikeouts, although he hit former Pirates All-Star Starling Marte on the right hand with a pitch in the first inning. Marte was removed from the game.

“They’re a really good lineup,” Keller said. “A lot of guys who can hit for average, too. It’s tough. When they’re on base, you kind of just have to lock it in a little bit more and execute the pitches a little bit more than you would with nobody on, especially when they’re in scoring position. Comes down to executing and letting the defense work. Let them get ahead. If they want to swing first pitch, fine. Just gotta let them put it on the ground and let the defense work.”

After missing two-plus games against Toronto with a sore left shoulder, Ke’Bryan Hayes returned to the lineup at third base. He turned a double play to end the first and made a barehand scoop and throw to get Brandon Nimmo out on a sacrifice bunt in the fifth. Hayes also scored on a wild pitch in the eighth to provide a three-run cushion.

Bryan Reynolds, Kevin Newman and Jack Suwinski had two hits apiece, and Rodolfo Castro smacked a two-run homer.

The Pirates took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Newman beat out a grounder to third, raced from first to third on Suwinski’s single to right and scored on a sacrifice fly to center by Michael Chavis.

Keller had runners on first and second in each of the first three innings but didn’t allow a run. He got Pete Alonso to ground into a 5-4-3 double play to end the first, James McCann to fly out to right in the second and Alonso to ground into a 6-4-3 double play to end the third.

“He navigated through some traffic,” Shelton said. “He got Alonso to hit into the two double-play balls, which were huge. But I thought tonight his sinker was really effective, and he put the ball on the ground. Not a lot of punch outs, but he was really effective putting the baseball on the ground.”

The Pirates got to Mets starter Taijuan Walker (10-4) in the third when Reynolds drew a leadoff walk and Castro connected on a 1-2 slider at a 47-degree launch angle for a 376-foot, two-run home run. The ball hung high in the air before bouncing off the right field foul pole for his sixth homer to give the Pirates a 3-0 lead.

Since being recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis on Aug. 9, Castro leads the Pirates with nine extra-base hits (two doubles, two triples and five homers) and in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging and OPS.

After hitting a 110.9-mph single in the first, Cruz roped a 115.3-mph double to the right field corner with one out in the fifth and scored on a Reynolds single to right for a 4-0 lead.

Cruz now owns the top nine and 10 of the top 11 highest exit velocities by a Pirates player this season (Jack Suwinski has the 10th, on a home run clocked at 112.4 mph) and that double ranks fifth among his hardest-hit balls – all with exit velocities of 115 mph or higher. His 13th homer in 62 games wasn’t far behind, at 113.4 mph.

“I think it’s just continuing to learn and grow and swing at the right pitches,” Shelton said. “It’s something that we’ve continued to talk about. I think we’ve seen when he swings at the right pitches, he hits the ball hard, and we just have to continue to focus on that.”

When Keller reached 100 pitches in five innings, Robert Stephenson replaced him for the seventh. Stephenson struck out the first two batters he faced before giving up a single to James McCann. Brandon Nimmo followed with his 13th homer, a 429-foot shot to center to cut it to 4-2.

Hayes started the eighth with a walk, stole second base and reached third on Newman’s single up the middle. Newman advanced to second on Nimmo’s throw, putting a pair of runners in scoring position with no outs. Bryce Montes de Oca struck out Suwinski, but Hayes scored on a wild pitch to Chavis for a 5-2 lead. Newman went to third on the wild pitch and scored on a Jason Delay bloop single to center to make it 6-2.

The Mets replaced Montes de Oca with Tommy Hunter, and Cruz sent his 3-2 sinker for a two-run homer into the river. Cruz became the fourth player this season, the 46th different player and 67th overall in PNC Park history to put a ball in the water.

“It’s about time,” Cruz said. “It feels great. I was trying to get it up and I was able to get it up. I wasn’t very sure that it was going to land in the river. However, at the speed it was going and the height it was going, I thought it was 50-50.”