PITTSBURGH -- Certain players across Major League Baseball just seem built for Statcast, the sport’s state-of-the-art tracking technology. Pirates outfielder Oneil Cruz has proven over the years he’s one of them.
Cruz took his usual athletic exploits a step further Sunday afternoon, doing something nobody has done in the 10-year history of the tracking service.
The 26-year-old Cruz recorded the hardest-hit ball ever tracked by Statcast, driving a letter-high four-seam fastball from Logan Henderson 122.9 mph off the bat in Pittsburgh’s 6-5 series finale loss to the Brewers at PNC Park. The ball cleared the right-field wall with ease, traveling a projected 432 feet, and one-hopped into the Allegheny River, all by the time Cruz even left the batter’s box.
“It feels good. I was looking for a good pitch to hit and I connected really well,” Cruz said, through his interpreter and assistant coach Stephen Morales. “It feels even better just to know that it's the hardest-hit ball in the history of Statcast.”
The blast, Cruz’s 11th of the season, marked the 83rd home run in the history of PNC Park (since its debut season in 2001) to reach the water, and was the sixth time in his career he’s done so.
“It doesn't matter how hard the ball is hit. I just go out to make good contact,” Cruz said. “Sometimes, I don't even try to make the hardest contact, just [put] the ball in play.”
Cruz broke his own record for hardest hit overall in Statcast history, surpassing a 122.4 mph base hit he drove off the outfield wall in Pittsburgh on Aug. 24, 2022. The blast also broke the record for the hardest-hit home run previously held by Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton (121.7 mph, Aug. 9, 2018).
Starting pitcher Bailey Falter said the moment happened so fast he didn't realize what had happened.
“I thought it was a foul ball because he was just standing there and then I looked up on the board and realized he hit it [122.9 mph] into the Allegheny,” Falter said. “So that was pretty impressive. I don't think I’ve ever seen a ball hit that hard ever, in my life. When he’s on, he’s on. It’s fun and it's impressive to watch.”
Falter and infielder Adam Frazier were in awe of his ridiculous display of power, while thankful that nobody got hurt on the receiving end. The well-being of the crowd on hand is a fair concern with a player who ranks in the 100th percentile across MLB in bat speed, hard hit percentage, barrel percentage, and average exit velocity.
“You might see something special every time he steps in the box,” Frazier added.
The fireworks were a fitting end to Cruz’s homestand. Cruz finished the series 6-for-16 with three home runs, five RBIs, a double and a triple. His series puts him up to a .236 batting average and an .853 OPS, to go along with 18 stolen bases (third most in MLB).
“I can’t say enough about him, how he played and how he’s been playing, especially this series with the home runs, the triple, he made a heck of a play in right-center, too,” Pirates interim manager Don Kelly said. “It looked like a tough play. He’s doing great things.”
When Cruz is hot at the plate, Kelly knows the outfielder has the capacity to take Pittsburgh’s offense to an entirely new level. Putting it mildly, the Pirates’ lineup has had its share of growing pains through the first two months of the season. Despite ranking in the bottom five in MLB with a .224 team batting average, the Pirates’ skipper believes the lineup might be starting to turn the page after a 4-3 homestand.
Any offensive success that the Pirates experience this season will likely include the fifth-year big leaguer leading the charge.
“Superstar-type tough,” Kelly said. “When we sit there and we think about it, yeah, today was frustrating. But when you look at the homestand on the whole, it was a good homestand. We had some really good momentum coming into this game. Tough loss today but some really good things coming out of it, as well. Guys continued to grind, continued to battle and Oneil is obviously a huge part of that in what he’s doing. It’s contagious, too. They’re having better at-bats.”