Pittsburgh Pirates star Oneil Cruz was benched during Tuesday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers after he failed to run out a double-play ball. Pirates manager Don Kelly confirmed the benching, saying he removed Cruz from the game due to his lack of “energy and effort.”
The incident occurred in the seventh inning of the team’s 9-3 loss to the Brewers. With the Pirates trailing 7-3 and a runner on first, Cruz hit a double-play ball to Brewers shortstop Joey Ortiz.
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Ortiz flipped the ball to second base, securing the first out. At that point, Cruz stopped running up the first-base line, not realizing that was only the second out of the inning. The Brewers fired the ball to first, completing the double play and ending the frame.
While Cruz remained in the game in the bottom of the seventh and the top of the eighth, he was replaced by Alexander Canario in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Following the contest, Kelly said the decision was made due to Cruz’s lack of “energy and effort going down the line.” Kelly said he thought Cruz “fell a little short” of the necessary effort on the play. The manager was noncommittal about whether the benching would extend to Wednesday’s contest, saying, “We’re going to sit down and talk, and we’ll figure that out.”
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Cruz admitted that he lost track of the outs in the inning, which led to him pulling up on the double-play ball. He added — through an interpreter — that he agreed with Kelly’s decision, per ESPN.
“DK had all the rights to do what he did, and I’ll back him up on that,” Cruz said through an interpreter. “It was my fault because I thought there were two outs in that situation. That’s why I let off running to first base.”
The benching comes with Cruz in the midst of a poor season at the plate. The 26-year-old is hitting .211/.326/.410, with 13 home runs. While his 103 OPS+ is slightly above average, it represents a career worst for Cruz.
The outfielder will look to make up for his mistake Wednesday. After being noncommittal about Oneil’s availability, Kelly put the outfielder right back in the lineup to face Brewers rookie Jacob Misiorowski.
