Pirates shortstop Oneil Cruz channels frustration into 'unbelievable' exit velocities

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 121.5-mph 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.”

121.5 MPH off the bat of Oneil Cruz ????

Tie game. pic.twitter.com/RqEDJuiwW1

— MLB (@MLB) May 22, 2024

Oneil Cruz has the THREE hardest-hit balls of the night!

Two of them are the hardest-hit of the SEASON. pic.twitter.com/Oh5q3ZPoHL

— MLB (@MLB) May 22, 2024

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.

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“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.

Bat tracking -- Oneil Cruz 121.5 mph game-tying double in the 9th off a 100.3 mph cutter from Camilo Doval ????

4th-hardest base hit of the Statcast era

The next-hardest hit off a 100+ mph pitch is 115.4 mph ... over 6 mph slower

82.2 mph bat speed (swing viz at 1/2 speed) pic.twitter.com/Pq83U3OWMf

— David Adler (@_dadler) May 22, 2024

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.”

Oneil Cruz now has 3 120+ mph batted balls in his career

only other player with multiple under Statcast (2015): Giancarlo Stanton, 14

Stanton has 2 seasons with multiple: 6 in 2021, 3 in ’18. Cruz has 2 this year, BOTH TODAY

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) May 22, 2024

Pirates manager Derek Shelton wasn’t surprised to learn that Cruz’s final hit was his hardest of the game — and the hardest by any player this season — given how it compared to his first two.

“I saw the first one was 120, the ball down the line. I’m assuming the ball he hit to tie it was harder because that ball was hit hard,” Shelton said. “But, yeah, just good at-bats. The ball in the left-center gap was, what, 116? You don’t see guys hit the ball the other way that hard.

“I’m very proud of him because of the fact you can let an error early in the game get to you on a play we should have made, whether it’s him or Jack, but the fact that he stayed locked in, I think, was really important.”