Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder Oneil Cruz was removed from Tuesday night’s eventual 9-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers after he lost track of outs and failed to run out a groundball double play.
Here is the play in question:
An inning later, Pirates manager Don Kelly removed Cruz from the game because of, in Kelly’s words, Cruz’s “energy and effort going down the line.”
“We talked,” Kelly said after the game, via the Associated Press. “He knows the expectation. Right there, I feel we fell a little short.”
For his part, Cruz took accountability for the mental error.
“DK had all the rights to do what he did, and I’ll back him up on that,” Cruz said afterward through an interpreter. “It was my fault because I thought there were two outs in that situation. That’s why I let off running to first base.”
This incident comes mere days after an ugly-looking play by Cruz in center field against the Texas Rangers:
This season, the 26-year-old Cruz is slashing .211/.326/.410 (103 OPS+) with 13 home runs and a National League-leading 26 stolen bases in 70 games for the Pirates. Cruz, a former shortstop, is in his first season as a primary center fielder, and advanced defensive metrics are mixed on his performance. According to Statcast, Cruz is in the 87th percentile this season with 3 Outs Above Average. Defensive Runs Saved, however, gives him a minus-7 for 2025, which puts him 142nd out of 145 players to appear in center this season.
As for the last-place Pirates, Tuesday’s loss dropped them to 32-49 on the season. That puts them on a 98-loss pace. A few more losses here and there and the Pirates could be on the hook to lose 100 or more games for the third time in the last five seasons.
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