MILWAUKEE -- Pirates manager Don Kelly removed Oneil Cruz before the bottom of the eighth inning in their 9-3 loss to the Brewers on Tuesday night at American Family Field.
The removal stemmed from Cruz’s “energy and effort going down the line” on a ground ball in the top of the seventh, the skipper said.
In that frame, with one out, a runner on first and Pittsburgh trailing, 7-3, Cruz hit a grounder to Milwaukee third baseman Caleb Durbin. Cruz appeared to slow up running down the line, right about when Durbin tossed the ball to shortstop Joey Ortiz at second base, who then completed the inning-ending double play to first baseman Rhys Hoskins.
Cruz remained in the game on defense in the bottom of the inning, but after a 1-2-3 top of the eighth, Alexander Canario replaced him in center field.
For Kelly, this was a chance to reiterate the Pirates’ expectations.
“I think we were pretty clear the other day, and he knows the expectation going forward,” Kelly said. “We talked, but he knows the expectation, and right there, I think we fell a little short.”
This incident comes less than a week after Cruz’s error in center field on Friday. A line drive up the middle bounced past Cruz’s glove, and while the play was frustrating enough, he received criticism for not running after the ball. Kelly addressed it with Cruz but let him stay in the game, and he was happy with Cruz’s response over the rest of that contest.
But Tuesday night, Kelly decided to pull Cruz from the game. Cruz didn’t disagree with Kelly’s decision, saying through assistant coach and Major League interpreter Stephen Morales, “DK had all the rights to do what he did, and I'll back him up on that.”
Cruz did note he thought there were two outs on the play, and that’s why he let up running down the line. But that’s a mental mistake that can’t happen, regardless. Cruz entered the game with a 93rd-percentile sprint speed (29.1 ft/sec, per Statcast), and had he continued to hustle down the line, there’s a chance he might have beaten the throw from Ortiz.
Had that happened, the heart of Pittsburgh’s lineup would’ve been coming up with Cruz on base in a four-run game. Instead, the inning ended and the Pirates went down in order in the eighth and ninth.
“I accepted it really well,” Cruz said of his benching, “just because we have two guys here, [Andrew] McCutchen and Tommy Pham, who are really good examples. They always run hard, they always go out there [and give] their 100 percent, and that's a teaching point for me. I accepted it the way DK came to me and explained and presented it.”
Those two recent plays come as Cruz’s struggles at the plate continue. At the end of April, he owned a .902 OPS. At the end of May, that had dropped to .828. And after Tuesday, that sat at .725 with a .208 batting average.
“He's struggling at the plate right now, and it's difficult when you're going through that and trying to figure it out. And he's working hard to do that,” Kelly said. “That's one thing that we've got to be mindful of is not letting that offense carry over to defense and baserunning and the energy and effort that we're giving on any other aspects of the game as well.”
Cruz doesn’t think his offensive issues contributed to what happened on Tuesday, saying it was “just a mistake.” He’s also not trying to look at this stretch as frustrating but instead as the ups and downs players go through, which “you just have to confront them and be better every day.”
As far as getting back on track at the plate, Cruz feels a main factor is his need to just make better contact.
“Everything else is normal,” he added. “I mean, I feel good in every other aspect. It's just the contact right now is not like I want it to [be].”
It’s unclear if getting back on track will happen Wednesday, though. Kelly was noncommittal postgame on if Cruz will be back in the starting lineup for the series finale.
“We're going to sit down and talk, and we'll figure that out,” Kelly said.