The Pittsburgh Pirates are slogging through a difficult 2025 season, going into Sunday's MLB slate with a 19-34 record. Only the Colorado Rockies (9-43) are worse among the 15 National League teams.
Yet despite their ineptitude, the Pirates have two of the most dazzling talents in baseball, players who can achieve feats rarely seen in the sport. Pitcher Paul Skenes, the National League Rookie of the Year, is one of them. The other is center fielder Oneil Cruz, who did something MLB hasn't seen in at least 10 years during Sunday's matchup with the Milwaukee Brewers.
In the third inning, Cruz crushed a high fastball from Logan Henderson deep to right field. The ball actually went over the stands and out of PNC Park. A rocket like that needed some major fuel and, sure enough, it was the hardest hit ball recorded since Statcast began tracking batted balls and player activity in 2015. Cruz's home run was measured at 122.9 mph off his bat.
Henderson's fastball was clocked at 92.2 mph, so this wasn't a case of Cruz's bat colliding with a hard pitch and sending it the other way. He provided significant force to launch the home run out of the ballpark.
This isn't the first time Cruz has lit up Statcast. The Pirates star already had the hardest-hit ball recorded by MLB with a 122.4 mph single on Aug, 24, 2022, according to MLB.com. Prior to Sunday's blast, the hardest-hit home run was a 121.7 mph shot from Giancarlo Stanton on Aug. 9, 2018.
Cruz's missile came on the same day that Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal threw the hardest pitch ever recorded by a starting pitcher in the ninth inning during a 5-0 win over the Cleveland Guardians.
With 11 home runs for the season, Cruz has nearly twice as many as the next closest Pirates hitter (Bryan Reynolds with six). He's batting .236/.359/.491 with 18 stolen bases. He's in his first full year of playing center field after playing shortstop during his first two full MLB seasons.
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