Friday night was a rough one for Oneil Cruz. It was also rough for the Pirates as a whole, losing 6-2 to the Rangers at PNC Park.
However, Cruz put himself in the spotlight nobody ever wants to be in, one that gave the visiting club a run before half of the 31,327 on hand were done parking their cars on the North Shore:
It's one thing for a team to take a 1-0 lead on a home run or any kind of RBI base hit. It's not ideal, but at least they earned that run.
But, this? This is different. And, the mistake was compounded in the very next at-bat, giving the Rangers a 2-0 lead:
Seven pitches into the game, and the Rangers score two runs without batting anyone in. It's hard to win baseball games when spotting the opposing team multiple runs right away.
"In that moment, nobody feels worse than Oneil does," Don Kelly said after the game. "I think something that we talk about is we're going to misplay balls. That’s going to happen. How do we react to it in the moment? And how do we react after?"
The reaction after is something Kelly had to deal with immediately. Scroll back up and watch Cruz after the camera cuts back to the outfield after the error. Cruz is just standing there, waiting for Adam Frazier to run the ball down.
Now, Frazier's likely getting there first, even if Cruz books it as fast as he possibly can. However, the effort to make up for your mistake can go a long way for exactly what Kelly described. And, he even hinted at it after the game. Not only in saying that he had a talk with Cruz, but also with what's expected of him in such cases.
"We talked about it," Kelly said. "The energy, the effort in the rest of the game, getting down the line, I thought he made a good adjustment there and played hard the rest of the way, which is the expectation moving forward."
Cruz did play harder the rest of the way. He hustled down the line on a couple of groundouts, one being a very close play that barely lost to Marcus Semien's throw from second base. He also made a great effort to catch a ball hit deep to center field by Jonah Heim, but failed to haul it in when he crashed into the wall.
But, while the effort increased, the cleanliness of the play didn't exactly match:
There has to be some semblance of communication. Cruz either has to concede to Alexander Canario or he has to call him off. The centerfielder always has that jurisdiction. This stuff's taught in little league.
Then, there's potential lack of accountability. While Cruz's effort increased, he did not make himself available to the media following the game. The only player that did was Mike Burrows, who fought tooth and nail through 4 2/3 innings.
While the Pirates are in the middle of the pack with 37 errors on the season, 13th-most in Major League Baseball, games such as tonight expose the team's consistent issues with fundamentals. Cruz is just one guy, but he's not the only one who's made crucial mistakes. It's been an issue all season, whether it be errors, baserunning goofs or allowing opposing baserunners to move up when trying to throw a runner out at home when there's zero chance of getting him out.
Until all of this is fixed, this team will be handcuffed from piling up notches in the win column.
"We talk about fundamentals all the time. Working on it everyday, as far as the routine stuff goes," Kelly said. "I think that for the most part, the guys have done a good job of that recently, played some pretty good baseball, especially against some really good teams too. Played some pretty strong defense, I think, and it's something that we work on every day to get better and always will continue to work on it to get better at it."
Teams that can consistently execute basic fundamentals stand a good chance of winning a lot of baseball games. Clearly, there's still a lot of work to be done, especially if the expectation moving forward is to make nights like tonight a rarity and not the norm.
• Jacob deGrom had a pretty good stat line, giving up two runs on five hits in six innings, striking out seven and walking one. However, there was a bit of bad luck on the Pirates' end. Adolis Garcia robbed both Frazier and Spencer Horwitz with ridiculous diving catches. Andrew McCutchen also squared up a pitch and hit it 101 mph ... right at Corey Seager.
"I thought we did a pretty good job against deGrom. Getting down two early, then they get to third, fight back, load the bases, have some really good at-bats there. I mean, you see the stuff he’s got. He’s running it up to 100, locating his off speed well off of that. I thought we had some really good at-bats. Shoot, first three innings, we smoked some balls. Garcia made two great plays in the outfield. Cutch crushed one at Seager. It felt like we were having good at-bats, barreling some balls, got some guys on base and came through there later on. Just couldn’t get enough."
• Garcia had a ridiculous game for the Rangers. Two diving catches, one solo home run and an RBI double that might have been a home run if it weren't for fan interference. The 2023 ALCS MVP has proven on the biggest stage that he can take over a game. He did tonight.
• Joey Bart had a solid game, going 3 for 4 with an RBI single in the fourth inning against deGrom. Since raising his batting average to .301 on May 11, Bart had gone 5 for 50 heading into tonight's game. Those three hits had to have felt good.
• Ryan Borucki left the game in the ninth inning with a lower back issue. Kelly wasn't able to provide any more of an update after the game, but he was in clear discomfort walking off the field.
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THE ASYLUM
Chris Halicke
3:53 am - 06.21.2025North ShoreExtra Bases: Cruz just one of many problems
Friday night was a rough one for Oneil Cruz. It was also rough for the Pirates as a whole, losing 6-2 to the Rangers at PNC Park.
However, Cruz put himself in the spotlight nobody ever wants to be in, one that gave the visiting club a run before half of the 31,327 on hand were done parking their cars on the North Shore:
It's one thing for a team to take a 1-0 lead on a home run or any kind of RBI base hit. It's not ideal, but at least they earned that run.
But, this? This is different. And, the mistake was compounded in the very next at-bat, giving the Rangers a 2-0 lead:
Seven pitches into the game, and the Rangers score two runs without batting anyone in. It's hard to win baseball games when spotting the opposing team multiple runs right away.
"In that moment, nobody feels worse than Oneil does," Don Kelly said after the game. "I think something that we talk about is we're going to misplay balls. That’s going to happen. How do we react to it in the moment? And how do we react after?"
The reaction after is something Kelly had to deal with immediately. Scroll back up and watch Cruz after the camera cuts back to the outfield after the error. Cruz is just standing there, waiting for Adam Frazier to run the ball down.
Now, Frazier's likely getting there first, even if Cruz books it as fast as he possibly can. However, the effort to make up for your mistake can go a long way for exactly what Kelly described. And, he even hinted at it after the game. Not only in saying that he had a talk with Cruz, but also with what's expected of him in such cases.
"We talked about it," Kelly said. "The energy, the effort in the rest of the game, getting down the line, I thought he made a good adjustment there and played hard the rest of the way, which is the expectation moving forward."
Cruz did play harder the rest of the way. He hustled down the line on a couple of groundouts, one being a very close play that barely lost to Marcus Semien's throw from second base. He also made a great effort to catch a ball hit deep to center field by Jonah Heim, but failed to haul it in when he crashed into the wall.
But, while the effort increased, the cleanliness of the play didn't exactly match:
There has to be some semblance of communication. Cruz either has to concede to Alexander Canario or he has to call him off. The centerfielder always has that jurisdiction. This stuff's taught in little league.
Then, there's potential lack of accountability. While Cruz's effort increased, he did not make himself available to the media following the game. The only player that did was Mike Burrows, who fought tooth and nail through 4 2/3 innings.
While the Pirates are in the middle of the pack with 37 errors on the season, 13th-most in Major League Baseball, games such as tonight expose the team's consistent issues with fundamentals. Cruz is just one guy, but he's not the only one who's made crucial mistakes. It's been an issue all season, whether it be errors, baserunning goofs or allowing opposing baserunners to move up when trying to throw a runner out at home when there's zero chance of getting him out.
Until all of this is fixed, this team will be handcuffed from piling up notches in the win column.
"We talk about fundamentals all the time. Working on it everyday, as far as the routine stuff goes," Kelly said. "I think that for the most part, the guys have done a good job of that recently, played some pretty good baseball, especially against some really good teams too. Played some pretty strong defense, I think, and it's something that we work on every day to get better and always will continue to work on it to get better at it."
Teams that can consistently execute basic fundamentals stand a good chance of winning a lot of baseball games. Clearly, there's still a lot of work to be done, especially if the expectation moving forward is to make nights like tonight a rarity and not the norm.
• Jacob deGrom had a pretty good stat line, giving up two runs on five hits in six innings, striking out seven and walking one. However, there was a bit of bad luck on the Pirates' end. Adolis Garcia robbed both Frazier and Spencer Horwitz with ridiculous diving catches. Andrew McCutchen also squared up a pitch and hit it 101 mph ... right at Corey Seager.
"I thought we did a pretty good job against deGrom. Getting down two early, then they get to third, fight back, load the bases, have some really good at-bats there. I mean, you see the stuff he’s got. He’s running it up to 100, locating his off speed well off of that. I thought we had some really good at-bats. Shoot, first three innings, we smoked some balls. Garcia made two great plays in the outfield. Cutch crushed one at Seager. It felt like we were having good at-bats, barreling some balls, got some guys on base and came through there later on. Just couldn’t get enough."
• Garcia had a ridiculous game for the Rangers. Two diving catches, one solo home run and an RBI double that might have been a home run if it weren't for fan interference. The 2023 ALCS MVP has proven on the biggest stage that he can take over a game. He did tonight.
• Joey Bart had a solid game, going 3 for 4 with an RBI single in the fourth inning against deGrom. Since raising his batting average to .301 on May 11, Bart had gone 5 for 50 heading into tonight's game. Those three hits had to have felt good.
• Ryan Borucki left the game in the ninth inning with a lower back issue. Kelly wasn't able to provide any more of an update after the game, but he was in clear discomfort walking off the field.
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