PITTSBURGH — Tuesday was probably what the Pirates envisioned when they called Oneil Cruz up earlier this season.
In a game they eventually won 5-3, the team was trailing by three runs and getting shut out entering the bottom of the sixth. The offense was mostly lifeless against Milwaukee Brewers starter Corbin Burnes. Then Burnes got a little wild. He walked Pirates outfielders Bligh Madris and Cal Mitchell with one out, bringing up Cruz, who represented the tying run.
On a 1-1 pitch, Burnes delivered a changeup that would have been a ball off the outside corner. But in more ways than one, Cruz isn’t a normal hitter. He used each inch of his massive wingspan to reach the ball, then used each ounce of his outlandish strength to muscle it deep to center, over the wall and into the visiting bullpen.
Cruz both leveled the score and sparked a rally. Second baseman Josh VanMeter walked next, stole a base, then scored on an RBI single from catcher Tyler Heineman. The backstop then crossed home after an error and a wild pitch, putting the eventual final score on the board.
The homer was almost too perfect on Tuesday, which was also the trade deadline in Major League Baseball. The Pirates, for the most part, sat pat. They traded away Daniel Vogelbach to the New York Mets a couple weeks ago, then sent José Quintana and Chris Stratton to the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday. That was basically it, other than a few other minor trades involving cash considerations.
The takeaway from a deadline like that can be a bit frustrating. The Pirates certainly could have done more, but they were fine with taking it easy, because the current plan for future success remains developing those already within the organization and fitting them around one another into a much better baseball team at some point.
Nobody represents the hope for that plan quite like Cruz, because he’s unlike any other player in the Pirates’ system. For all of the flaws one can pick so far in the early days of his career, he still lights up the Statcast leaderboards on a near-nightly basis. He hits the ball harder, throws the ball faster, and has more speed than most.
It doesn’t always look pretty, but when Cruz puts it together for a moment, it’s blindingly obvious to see the light. That was the case Tuesday, when he faced one of the best starting pitchers in baseball and got the better of him in a clutch moment.
After the Pirates added on two more in the sixth, they nearly gave it away. Colin Holderman, the reliever who came to the Pirates in the Vogelbach deal, finished out the sixth inning after starter Bryse Wilson gave up three separate solo homers. Holderman got into some trouble in the seventh, though, allowing a single and a double to put runners on second and third with one out.
The Pirates then turned to lefty Manny Bañuelos, who hit the first batter he faced. He bounced back to induce a weak flyout to center and a strikeout looking to end the threat.
Beyond that blip from Wilson in the sixth, the Pirates’ pitching effort was spotless. Wilson threw five shutout frames to start the game, though he did allow some hard contact. That came back to bite him when Willy Adames, Rowdy Tellez and Kolten Wong all took him deep in the sixth. Cruz and the offense bailed him out, though, while right-handers Yerry De Los Santos and Wil Crowe slammed the door with shutout efforts in the eighth and ninth.
Many fans will turn their attentions this season to signs for the future. General manager Ben Cherington implied before Tuesday’s game that some changes to the roster could be coming. That likely means an effort to clear some space for younger players to get MLB experience in the last few months. Jack Suwinski, Travis Swaggerty and Tucupita Marcano are among the options.
That could be exciting, but none of them have quite the same toolset as Cruz. The homer gave him 25 RBIs in 35 games played this season, and that’s tied for the fifth-most on the Pirates this season.
There’s another example of the larger point. 25 RBIs shouldn’t be the fifth-most for an MLB team that’s 103 games into the season. It doesn’t change the fact that Cruz can be special and, at the very least, quite productive. With one important swing he refreshed everyone’s memory of that fact.
