LOS ANGELES -- Oneil Cruz and the leadoff spot are looking as though they were meant for each other. That was clear from pitch one on Saturday night at Dodger Stadium.
With yet another game-opening home run, a hard-hit RBI single and a walk, Cruz¡¯s bat stayed blazing in the Pirates¡¯ 8-4 loss to the Dodgers -- a trend that has been in effect for about two weeks now, ever since he began regularly hitting atop Pittsburgh¡¯s order.
¡°Oneil at the leadoff spot is awesome,¡± said starting pitcher Mitch Keller. ¡°There¡¯s always a chance for it to be 1-0 ¡ or he¡¯s going to put together a professional at-bat and get a walk and lead us off. There¡¯s always something that can happen in the first spot of the game there with him up there.¡±
Going up against rookie phenom Roki Sasaki for the first time, Cruz pounced immediately, reaching out for a slightly outside four-seamer and sending it a Statcast-projected 399 feet to center field. It was Cruz¡¯s fourth leadoff homer of the year and second in his last three games. His four leadoff home runs this April are the most in a calendar month in Pirates history.
¡°I mean, it was up and out over, off the plate, and I was surprised he even swung at that pitch, let alone was able to flick it out for a home run,¡± said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. ¡°It didn¡¯t scare Roki out of the strike zone, but pretty impressive piece of hitting.¡±
In the fifth inning, with men on second and third and the Pirates down by a run, Cruz came through with a base hit that led to both runners coming home (though he was credited with only one RBI). The ball was struck at 110.9 mph, his third-hardest-hit single this season. He also drew a walk in the top of the seventh to load the bases and set the stage for Bryan Reynolds to drive in what was then a go-ahead run.
¡°I think he¡¯s in a pretty good groove right now,¡± manager Derek Shelton said of Cruz.
Cruz has always had pop, and last season he recorded a career-high 21 home runs. He already has eight this year, which leads his team and puts him well on pace to blow right past his 2024 mark. He¡¯s doing this while also tied for the MLB lead with 12 stolen bases. It¡¯s that power-speed combo that makes him such a threat from the top of the lineup, as well as an on-base percentage (.370) and walk rate (13.9%) that would outpace any full season in his MLB career.
Yet it took a while for him to land here.
Cruz didn¡¯t bat leadoff until the Pirates¡¯ 14th game of the season on April 14, with seven other Pirates hitters serving that role in the meantime. In that game, he went 2-for-5 with a double as part of a 10-3 win over the Nationals. He has hit there in all but two of the Pirates¡¯ 11 games since.
And the numbers are striking.
In the No. 1 slot this year, Cruz has a slash line of .326/.396/.721. From any other batting order position, that falls to .213/.350/.468. And while the splits aren¡¯t as extreme for his entire career, overall, he has done some of his best hitting at leadoff.
¡°I wasn't looking for it,¡± Cruz said of batting first, through assistant coach and translator Stephen Morales. ¡°Shelty came to me one day and told me that he sees myself as a leadoff hitter, helping the team right away.¡±
Of course, it¡¯s difficult to determine how much of that success is about where Cruz is hitting and how much is just a matter of things finally starting to click for him offensively. But for a team that has dealt with a fair share of lineup turnover early in the season, a reliable leadoff hitter could well prove to be a much-needed source of stability.
¡°It may be a combination of both,¡± said Shelton. ¡°I don¡¯t know if we know, and [we] really don¡¯t care, as long as he keeps swinging the bat well.¡±