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Pirates' Oneil Cruz backs up bold prediction with 116.9 mph feat against Rangers originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Oneil Cruz certainly does not lack confidence.
The Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder also hits the ball as hard, if not harder, than anyone in baseball.
Before his 116.9 mph home run against the Texas Rangers on Wednesday, Cruz was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.
"In an 8-4 win over the Rangers, Cruz mashed a soft cutter, bouncing it off the top of the right-field foul pole. Had the pole not been in the way, it would have traveled an estimated 432 feet from the plate, per Statcast," MLB.com's Dave Sessions wrote.
"The ball ricocheted into the third of Globe Life Field’s four decks in that area. The 116.9 mph exit velocity was the hardest-hit homer in MLB this season, and the second-hardest-hit ball in the six-plus seasons in the ballpark’s [Globe Life Field] history."
Apparently, Cruz had a feeling he was going to do something special during the plate appearance.
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“I would not tell you the exact words that I told him, but in that situation right there, I told him that I was having a rough day, but that was the at-bat that I needed to do something,” Cruz told Sessions about his conversation with Marcell Ozuna before his at-bat. “And I said to him that I was gonna hit a home run there.”
Cruz's prediction was correct. He got all of that one and them some.
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