Pirates Insider: Potential playoff push needs more 'mind-boggling stuff' from Oneil Cruz

CHICAGO — Oneil Cruz unfurled his long, powerful limbs and stared. He knew it was gone. Everyone knew it was gone.

A Statcast recalculation would cost Cruz 34 feet in home run distance, but let’s be honest: There’s usually plenty to spare.

The Cruz missile traveling toward center field in the fourth inning traveled 433 feet at 117.4 mph, the highest exit velocity on a homer in MLB this season.

It helped the Pirates to a 2-0 victory over the White Sox at Rate Field on Thursday and completed a series sweep. But it also reinforced something we’ve seen since Cruz returned from the injured list, the type of thing that’ll be necessary for the Pirates to flip this recent stretch of good baseball (winning 11 of 15) into a full-fledged hot streak.

When Cruz plays the way he has since returning from the injured list, the Pirates are simply a different team.

Primarily because Cruz is a different player.

“Not a lot of guys get the ball 116 mph and 500 feet,” Jared Jones said. “Seeing what he does on a day-to-day basis is really fun to watch."

Cruz drove in both Pirates runs and went 3 for 4 Thursday, finishing the series with a 7-for-13 mark at the plate.

With two more singles Thursday, Cruz is now hitting .311 against left-handed pitching, up from .102 last season.

In 20 games since returning from a pair of non-displaced fractures in his left hand, Cruz is hitting .315 with two doubles, a triple, four home runs and 18 RBIs in 20 games, with an OPS of .939.

He’s been a difference-maker, a premier player, a star.

Not only that, Cruz made a fantastic sliding catch in the second inning, demonstrating some defensive improvements in center field since coming back, as well.

Cruz downplayed his impact since returning to the lineup, attributing it solely to “hard work and focus.” However, his teammates can’t help but notice.

“He’s a huge human who’s a good athlete and can swing really hard,” Jake Mangum said. “That swing was all we needed for the shutout. Happy he’s on our team and back healthy. We just have to keep rolling.”

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Cruz got a 1-1 changeup that sat middle-middle and annihilated it. In the top of the eighth, he went down and got a 2-2 sweeper at the bottom of the zone, driving a single to right.

Over his past 12 games, Cruz now has multiple hits in five of them, tamping down his strikeouts somewhat to 15 in 53 plate appearances (28.3%) during that time.

It’ll be interesting if this becomes the start of something bigger for Cruz, too. The home run snapped a stretch of 47 at-bats and 54 plate appearances without once — since he took Bethel Park native Mason Miller deep on Aug. 25 at San Diego.

The production has remained steady, hence the batting average and on-base percentage. But it’s been a minute since we’ve seen him uncork one like he did against Erick Fedde.

Cruz’s homer also represents the hardest-hit dinger by a Pirate this season, overtaking his own 116.9-mph blast April 22 in Texas.

“I was looking on from kind of the tunnel, and I heard it,” Jones said. “I took a couple steps forward, saw where it landed and … just mind-boggling stuff."

Among other observations from this one:

• Thursday pregame had a somber tone after the Pirates learned Braxton Ashcraft would be placed on the 15-day injured list with right arm discomfort.

He’s been so good this season, owning a 14-6 record and 3.65 ERA while walking just 35 and striking out 173 in 165 1/3 innings. Among National League pitchers, Ashcraft ranks tied for eighth in FanGraphs’ wins above replacement with 3.6.

That increases the pressure on Paul Skenes, Jared Jones and Bubba Chandler, and it’s hard to imagine Jones pitching better than he did against the White Sox.

The right-hander carried a no-hitter through 6 2/3 innings. He went seven for the first time this season and the fourth time in his career, extending his scoreless streak to 13 2/3 innings.

Jones had 20 whiffs and has 17 strikeouts over his past two starts.

“I felt like everything was going my way today and felt good,” Jones said.

The recipe for Jones has been simple. He’s throwing his four-seamer and slider for strikes, and he’s challenges hitters with all of his pitches. His curveball and changeup have also made significant strides.

Jones threw 90 pitches against the White Sox and easily earned that seventh inning.

“The whole thing was really impressive,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “Fastball velocity, command was there, and slider was really, really good. Mixed in some changeups as the outing went on. He had the six perfect innings earlier this season. [Thursday] was just as good, if not better, than that.”

• Mason Montgomery has been such a luxury — and one the Pirates didn’t have earlier this season. He’s become automatic, as he’s now pitched 19 1/3 scoreless innings over 20 appearances dating back to July 27, walking four and striking out 30 during that time.

Even on Thursday, when Montgomery earned his 12th save, the left-hander gave up a leadoff hit, yet it never felt like anything sped up on him.

• The Pirates were a defensive wreck a few weeks ago in St. Louis. Since that time, they’ve really tightened things up on that side of the ball.

In addition to Cruz’s catch, Mangum robbed first baseman Munetaka Murakami in the seventh. Brandon Lowe made two clutch plays for Montgomery in the ninth.

• Big picture, the Pirates are keeping themselves in the fight. They’re over .500 (74-73) for the first time since July 29. They’re still 4.5 games back in the race for the final NL Wild Card spot with 15. But they’re going a much better direction than the Marlins and Cardinals.

The teams to focus on are the Padres and Diamondbacks. They need at least one to fall apart, then for the other to dominant their series against one another at the end of the season.

Jason Mackey: Jason.Mackey@pirates.com and @JMackey_PGH on X.