Oneil Cruz showed off the POWER and speed in the outfield for the Pirates in 2025! πŸ’ͺ

0 and one on Cruz. Rips this to right if it stays fair. It’s a line drive home run and it is a Cruz missile. O’Neal Cruz. Just a matter of whether it would stay fair and it does. His first home run and it gives the Pirates a 4 nothing lead. I was a little nervous, Greg. I thought it might hit that pillar. Well, he is a Statcast darling for a reason. That’s 115 mph. The pitch. Cruz with a high drive to deep left center field and over toward the wall and leaping up to try and make the grab. Jake Mangum, but this one is gone. O’Neal Cruz with a Cruz missile opposite field. That is his second home run. And the Pirates take a two nothing lead here in the fifth. And Pepio goes back to the change up. Tries to go change up away. O’Neal Cruz does a nice job of going with that pitch. into center field and O’Neal Cruz diving catch. O’Neal Cruz might be his best so far in center field. He stopped just for a quick second, but his makeup speed is just terrific. laying out there. O’Neal Cruz and Cruz with a drive to right field and O’Neal Cruz caps off the inning with his third home run. His first career grand slam for O’Neal Cruz. You talk about the big boys making a difference when they get hot. Whether it’s Reynolds, McCutchen, Cruz is what they can do. They can change the game. One swing. Davis hit the solo shot. O’Neal Cruz hits the granny. Drive to right field. O’Neal Cruz with a Cruz missile. Oh, baby. O’Neal Cruz. How about his last two swings? The granny last night. First inning dinger, his fourth of the year. And swinging on the first pitch toward the wall in left field. Clear the deck. Cannonball coming. A Cruz missile again. He leads off with a home run. One- nothing Pirates. And we talked about O’Neal Cruz. When he gets hot, he gets scorching. And what do you know? He doesn’t even wait around. This isn’t even a strike, Greg. This ball’s well off the plate. And when you’re hot, just swing the back. Oh, that is hammered to center field. Clear the deck. Look at this. Cruise missile. Holy smokes. Was that ball hammered. Number six for O’Neal Cruz. It is two nothing. The net is so far. I mean, I can’t imagine a ball ever landing. Wow. Schemes Cruz put the first ball in play the first two nights of this series. And drives one deep to right field. Look at this. Cruz missile on the second pitch of the game. O’Neal Cruz. One nothing instant offense. That’s number seven. Wow. Tyler Anderson has allowed only four singles to right-handed batters. That’s the fourth home run a lefty has hit off of Tyler Anderson. First pitch swinging out to center and deep and it gets out of here. O’Neal Cruz on the first pitch of the game. Homers to center. What a greeting for Sasaki. O’Neal Cruz doing O’Neal Cruz things. That ball was a line drive and obviously Pas didn’t get a good look at that when it came out the bat. He didn’t realize he hit it that good, but he did. And the ball just kept carrying out to center field. Had a long way. Cruz on his horse. And that’s carrying. And Cruz, look at that play. Wow. O’Neal Cruz. Even the visiting bullpen appreciates that play. That is some makeup speed right there. O’Neal Cruz was rolling out. Like they said, Deion Sanders used to always say, “How fast are you fast enough?” Oh, those long legs and the long arm toward left center field toward the gap and right at the base of the wall sends Pete Crow Armstrong back to the base of the wall. The throw to the plate is not going to get Triolo. O’Neal Cruz sends that one a long way as Henry Davis scores. Davis able to score on the double by O’Neal Cruz and the Pirates take a two nothing lead in the air to shallow center. A late break for Cruz and he makes up for it with the speed. O’Neal Cruz comes in and makes the play. Yeah, toughest play for a center fielder is a full swing and a ball that doesn’t get hit on the barrel. He hits the ball to left field and that does go out. And now Caleb Ferguson gets a fly ball to center field. Runner at third. Scott going to tag and here he comes. And O’Neal Cruz guns it to the plate and he is out. What a throw. I’ve been waiting for that all year. We haven’t got O’Neal Cruz an absolute missile on the money. We want the long ball. The 3-1 and a drive to center field. Back and clear the deck. You bet. O’Neal Cruz a missile. His ninth and it’s one- nothing. If you’re watching, hope you made that call. Made that bet. 118 mph. Crushes baseballs. A fly ball to right field. Clear the deck. Cannonball coming a cruise. Missile ties it. Second of the game and second allowed by Oribe. Not much doubt on his home runs. 44. You got to love the serious look. Here’s Cruz left on left against Alexander. He’s never faced the lefty. Singled his last time up. A line drive right center field. That’ll do it. O’Neal Cruz into second base. He’s not stopping. He’s into third with a triple and a 2-1 lead. This is a double for everybody. O’Neal Cruz can jog to first and still hit a triple where most everybody else is running hard out of the box and it’s a double drive to right field. If it’s fair, it’s gone. And it is gone. There’s a cruise missile. Wow. That got out of here in no time. A bomb. 122.9 miles an hour. I was going to say that had to be the hardest ball. Wow. There’s no doubt that that that ball had to land 50 ft in the river. Highf fly ball deep to right field. Carol back to the wall and clear the deck with a cruise cannonball. O’Neal Cruz hits his 12th. That one a towering home run here in the desert. Towering indeed. Now that was the ray guy punt. Hang time about 8.7 seconds. That ball stayed in the air a long time. Cruz runs. Cruz is safe. 20 stolen bases for O’Neal Cruz. That ball right center field and Cruz that ball kept carrying and Cruz stayed with it. I think Sk might have thought that was out of here. You see his reaction after it was hit. It’s like I don’t know. See you kind of like look. You see he’s not even looking. He’s looking off to the side. Oh, Cruz said, “I got it at the last.” Felt like a lot of the hits that the Pirates had on the road were infield hits. And there’s a stolen base for O’Neal Cruz. That’s his 21st. He was caught for the second time last year. So now Cruz tied to top again in the National League with Pete Crow Armstrong. It’s a routine base hit for him and he’s taken off for third and nobody’s there. He almost got picked off by Diaz. If he was thinking that real quick, I don’t know how close this could come to him. Pull a little Reggie Jackson. It was up too high. It was over his head, I think. Two steals tonight. 22 on the season. Runner goes. No chance. O’Neal Cruz. Stolen base. Yeah, that’s the danger. You you walk O’Neal Cruz, you’re basically giving the Pirates a runner on second and he’s just too fast. Oh, he has another good quick tag from Stodd. Made it look a lot closer than I thought. It was. Wow. Stolen base. Major League 23rd. Cruz sucks this one out of here. Three to two on home runs by Hayes and Cruz here in the eighth. And here they come. Well, and to this point that really makes that play that Senoa made against IKF, the previous hitter, a big play to this point. The two big swings of the bat in this inning from to Brian Hayes and now O’Neal Cruz a no doubter. And Cruz with a drive to right field and clear the deck. A Cruz missile and a cannonball. his 14th. It’s 4 nothing Pirates in the first. We know when he’s on time and he’s finding that barrel, the damage is going to happen. And this a cutter that just sat right in the middle of the plate. First pitch he sees of the day and he’s ready for it. There’s a drive to right field and O’Neal Cruz has himself a two homer game. A weekend coming out party for the Bucks. Blowing out the Mets again. And off the bat, I was actually looking to see if this one might reach the the Alagany, but it looks like he just got it off the barrel a tiny bit, but as strong as he is, still somewhat of a no doubter. Second career multi homer game for Cruz trying to hit that ball to Cuddlesville 2-1. A highf fly ball to right field. O’Neal Cruz, he’s going to the home run derby. And that was a towering home run for O’Neal Cruz, his 16th. How about it? The day he is announced as a participant, he delivers. Boy, did he. That ball went over the waterfall. 458 ft. Goodness, that was a breaking ball that elevated and he knew right when he hit it. Just like many of his home runs and taking off. Cruz is going to be there without a throw as Hayes strikes out. O’Neal Cruz steals his 29th base of the year. O’Neal got a good jump there. A little bit of help that Vasquez couldn’t grab the handle and get the throw off to second base. It was the best pitch of the at bat for the Christian Vasquez to throw on. It was a fast ball elevated just losing it there. Not that he would have thrown out O’Neal, but certainly the best pitch with an opportunity to. Bruce said, “I like to hit balls far, so I think I’m going to enjoy the home run derby a lot.” Well, he swings at the first one and hits a cloud out there and it’s heading towards right and it is gone. And so is the next one. Okay. Oh boy. Welcome to the derby, O’Neal Cruz. Wow. He got everyone up here. Got the boys up over here on the right side. Okay. And the thing is the bat looks like a toothpick in his hands. That’s how big he is. 20 pitches. Probably didn’t either. Look at this one. To get on the roller right center went out. They’ve been the most impressive homers, but there’s only eight on the board. There’s nine. I told you it’s O’Neal Cruz might not win it, but he will put on a fabulous show. Yeah. And I said we’d have a 500 ft homer. We have one. That one that went out to right center was 513 ft. You should get three outs extra for that. One more to tie the first place number of Camro. Oh goodness. Right down the line. You see the foul pole? Get out of the way. See the foul pole. Get out of the way. Look at Look at Stevie. Stevie, get out of the way. Yes, it was. So, we have a tie at the top. But man, was that impressive. We thought at the 140 mark he was going to need a big round after the timeout. He put on a big round. Okay, so no pirate has ever passed the first round. How about this? He hits 21. Think about pirate 21. Look at you. Look at I like what you did there, Eduardo. There you go. My goodness. Needs one. Needs one. Needs one. And he got it. Okay, boys. Bonus round. Nine homers. Oh my. Longest one of the night. Even him, he can’t believe he hit it that far. What? Oh, that’s nasty. What a show for O’Neal Cruz in his first home run derby. And I said it earlier, it might not he might not win it, but it definitely will be memorable. He’s on the short list of guys that you will always want to see in a home run derby. Two and two on FAM. There goes Cruz. Pitch is taken inside for a ball. The throw down and it’s a head first slide and a stolen base where O’Neal Cruz throws his 32nd stolen base of the season. 3-2 pitch. Fly ball to center field. Cruz started back now comes in and makes a diving catch as he’s laying flat on the grass. He gets up and shakes his right hand as he trots toward home. Looks like he’s going to be okay. Fly ball right center field. Just a matter of where it lands. That is way gone. A cruise missile. He clears the deck with his 17th cannonball. And he does change the scoreboard real quick. Two nothing. That is the thing you love about O’Neal Cruz in a lineup with runners on base. He can put up a crooked number really fast. And the Pirates get off to an early two nothing lead thanks to the long ball from O’Neal Cruz. Trying to do too much. There’s a drive to right center field. O’Neal Crows a Cruz missile for a grand slam. A laser over the right center field fence into the Bucko bullpen and a chef’s kiss for O’Neal Cruz. Five nothing Pirates. 18 dingers for Cruz. Hayes, who committed a big two-run error last night. And this one is off the wall for Doyle. And he’s going to third. And the throw from Pruz. He got him. Oh my goodness. Shades of Jose Guen here at Coors Field in Denver from the wall. Cruz throws to Triolo and Doyle is out and he lines this one up the middle. Tough play for O’Neal Cruz, but he slides and makes the catch and the inning is over. Mitch Keller gets into a jam with the bases loaded and nobody out, but limits the damage to one run. Cruz way back onto the monster. Wicked. That is big country out there. Wow. Well, we’ve been talking about with O’Neal Cruz trying to find a way to get him locked in again. You know, the one thing we mentioned, maybe try to look to hit the ball the other way a little bit more. You know, he’s been out in front of everything soft late on the Heat. Out to center and Cruz is there. Boy, what a play. That ball was hit hard and O’Neal Cruz figures, hey, I got the speed. I got the talent to make the play. Hey, if it gets by him, it’s rolling for at least another 100 ft or so into that corner. He’s looking for that energy, that effort. A fly ball toward right field. And this is going to be off the wall and car him hard away from Castro. And O’Neal Crows is booking it into third base. And he is there with a trip triple. Two to one. The importance of the last however many games that are left for O’Neal Cruz is something of note. You’d love to see him finish on a high note. It hasn’t been an easy second half, especially the season when you see him busting it to get to third. And out to Cruz and deep center. Wow. How’d he find that? Beautifully done. That was a nice play. That was an excellent play. He’s been a little hit or miss on those balls over his head like that, especially as he gets close to the wall. Man, he tracked that one perfectly. That’s hit hard to left field to the wall and clear the deck. Opposite Cannonball coming. The Pirates take a four nothing lead. O’Neal Cruz hits his 20th home run of the season and his first since August the 30th. And that one right there just shows you how talented O’Neal Cruz is and how strong he is to leave the ballpark to straight left field right there. That’s impressive power right there.

Full 2025 season highlights from Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Oneil Cruz.

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