Oneil Cruz went off at the plate on Tuesday night.
The Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop not only forced extra innings with a clutch double in the bottom of the ninth inning at PNC Park, but he had three hits with exit velocities above 115, which had never been done before in the Statcast era. He was absolutely crushing the ball.
Cruz opened the Pirates’ 7-6 win over the San Francisco Giants with a single in the first inning, which left his bat at an impressive 120.4 miles per hour. That was the hardest-hit ball anywhere in Major League Baseball so far this season.
Then, after a 116.3 mph double in the third, Cruz did it again. He broke his own season record with a 121.5 mph double that reached the right field wall and scored Ji Hwan Bae in the bottom of the ninth inning to tie the game. That forced extra innings and eventually set them up for the walk-off win in the 10th.
Cruz is now the first player in the Statcast era to record three hits at 115 mph or better in a single game, and the first player to have multiple hits over 120 mph in the same night. Since Statcast was introduced in 2015, there have only been 20 balls that were hit at 120 mph or harder. Cruz owns three of those, including a record 122.4 mph single he hit in 2022.
“I can try to do that same thing, but I mean, that’s probably like his butt-out swing,” Pirates second baseman Jared Triolo said, via the Post-Gazette. “That’s my top velo.”
Cruz is averaging .260 at the plate this season. He has seven home runs and 19 RBI with a .303 OBP. The 25-year-old is in his fourth season with the Pirates, who now hold a 23-26 record after Tuesday’s win. They’ve now won four of their last five, which has them third in the NL Central standings.
