BRADENTON, Fla. -- The vuvuzelas, drums and horns stayed behind, and so did the sea of flags. The energy, though, followed Oneil Cruz home from Miami and showed up Tuesday afternoon in a single and a stolen base in Cruz’s first at-bat back in the Pirates’ lineup.
Cruz’s contribution to his club’s eventual 10-2 loss to the Astros at LECOM Park was a quiet line that carried a much louder message: He hadn’t lost a step during his time away with Team Dominican Republic for the World Baseball Classic.
If anything, he brought a little something back with him.
“A lot of good things,” Cruz said through interpreter Stephen Morales. “I was around a lot of people that played really good baseball in their careers, and I took a lot of takeaways from those guys.”
Cruz, along with relievers Gregory Soto and Dennis Santana, returned to Pirates camp after they represented their home country in the Classic, an experience that blended elite competition with culture, pride and baseball with the volume turned up to 11.
As Santana put it: “Dominicans are loud.”
“They showed the world why we were loud,” he added with a smile. “... There were 36,000 people, and like 31,000 were Dominican. That was special for us. They don’t have the chance to see us every year. … It was something I’m going to have in my heart for the rest of my life.”
Cruz embraced both the atmosphere and the expectations, finishing 3-for-5 with all three of his hits going for extra bases. None of them boomed louder than the 450-foot home run he hit against Nicaragua that left his bat at 116.8 mph and led Pittsburgh manager Don Kelly to joke that the ball probably still hadn’t landed.
The other Classic homer was no less impressive, rocketing off his bat at 115.8 mph against Team Israel.
“I feel very proud of what I did,” Cruz said. “I prepared myself during the offseason for Spring Training, and that event in particular. I surprised myself a little bit with all the things that I did in a short amount of at-bats and playing time.”
Soto, who pitched 1 2/3 innings across three games, had a ringside seat to the show.
“Very good,” he said. “He hit a couple [of] enormous homers.”
As powerful as the on-field experience was, Cruz said the conversations with players and coaches across the roster had the most impact on him, including one with Fernando Tatis Sr. that he preferred to keep private but believes will stick with him for the rest of his career.
For Soto, it was the crowd and the connection it made both on and off the field.
“The support they give us in Miami, that’s something I’m never going to forget,” he said.
“It’s about culture,” Cruz added. “Our culture down in Dominican as baseball players is to have fun, and during the baseball Classic, it wasn’t an exception. We were going to have fun, and I think we did, big time.”
Santana and Soto felt it, too.
“That was a unique experience,” said Santana, who tossed two scoreless innings across two games. “One of the best teams I could be on. A lot of big stars. The best of the best.”
Now, all three of the Bucs are back on a different, but familiar, stage. At least for now, this one is a little quieter and a bit more routine. But that doesn’t make what happens in the final week of Spring Training any less important, and Santana believes the trio of Dominican representatives who each did their part to help the D.R. remain undefeated in the Classic until the 2-1 elimination loss to Team USA on Sunday night have come “home” with a competitive edge.
“I think that’s going to get us ready for Opening Day,” Santana said of the Pirates’ upcoming trip to face the Mets in New York. “They’ve got a big fan base, and we’re ready for that.”
Before the Dominicans faced Nicaragua, manager Albert Pujols took Cruz aside with a simple question: Are you scared?
“No,” Cruz responded. “You’ll see what I can do.”
One very, very loud home run later, Pujols could only shake his head.
“He said, 'Yeah, okay, continue to be scared,’” Cruz remembered with a smile. “‘Be scared all the time, in every at-bat.'”
Cruz echoed that sentiment with his bat against the Astros. The Bucs’ center fielder is ready to put to practice all the work he’s done in the offseason, and his recent performance with Team Dominican Republic was just a warmup for 2026.