Pittsburgh Pirates star Oneil Cruz didn’t have much time to admire his home run in Sunday’s loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.
Cruz’s blast in the third inning left PNC Park — it one-hopped into the Allegheny River — in a hurry and MLB’s tracking service backed up that feeling. Cruz’s homer went not only 432 feet off Brewers righthander Logan Henderson but traveled at 122.9 mph off the left-handed slugger’s bat. That marked the hardest-hit ball in the Statcast era.
“It feels good. I was looking for a good pitch to hit and I connected really well,” Cruz told reporters through his interpreter and assistant coach Stephen Morales, per MLB.com’s Will Aldrich. “It feels even better just to know that it’s the hardest-hit ball in the history of Statcast.”
Cruz was already at the top of the Statcast leaderboard for exit velocity for a 122.4 mph hit he had in 2022. And the round-tripper by Cruz, which was his 11th of the season, was also the hardest-hit home run, surpassing Giancarlo Stanton’s 121.7 mph bomb in 2018.
Story continues below advertisement
The exciting feat drew quite the reaction from Cruz’s teammates.
“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,” Pirates starting pitcher Bailey Falter said, per Aldrich. “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.”
Not many players across MLB can replicate the type of power and bat speed Cruz possesses. It’s what makes what he did daunting for most players, but obtainable for him.
“You might see something special every time he steps in the box,” Frazier said, per Aldrich.
Story continues below advertisement
Featured image via Charles LeClaire/Imagn Images