The incident, which could shelve the short, sexy youngster for two months, unfolded in the sixth inning of what would become 1-0 The Pirates win at home. With Cruz on third and no, Pittsburgh’s Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a ground ball in his direction that ground out Chicago’s third baseman Yon Moncada and threw it home. White Sox catcher Sebe Zavala had to jump up a bit to make the catch, and when he landed, Cruz hit him.
Zavala made a tag out shortly before Cruz was late, sliding hard around him and taking him to the ground. The 29-year-old immediately turned around and barked in the direction of Cruz, 24, who was already showing visible signs of pain and distress. While Cruz received medical attention, Pittsburgh’s Carlos Santana, who was next to bat, held on to an injured teammate by feuding with Zavala. This unhappy interaction soon took on a physical aspect which resulted in members of both sides appearing briefly on the scene.
A video clip emerged from the sequence of Zavala’s capture using several profanities Cruz praises to slide.
“What I don’t like is that [Zavala] I screamed at [Cruz] When he got hit, “Santana He said after the game. “I had to support my teammates.”
“You see a guy fall down, he can’t move, he’s in pain, and everything [Zavala] concerns about [complaining] about what happened? “He drove everyone crazy,” said Pittsburgh pitcher Johan Oviedo, who got the win after allowing 5 hits and not running more than 6 innings. “…it was like, ‘Brother, just relax. There is a man on earth. We hope he learns someday.”
“I was just talking to Santana about it,” Zavala said Tell correspondents. “He didn’t like what I said, he said something I didn’t like. That’s what happened. I think in a couple of days everyone will forget about it.”
After Cruz was injured and eventually helped out of the field, he was replaced in the lineup by Ji Hwan-bai, who took the field at second base while teammate Rodolfo Castro—a close friend of Cruz and fellow Dominican—moved on to play shortstop.
It’s not immediately clear who Pittsburgh will determine as a primary shortstop while Cruz is out, but his injury is a major blow to a team that started 6-3 after several years of being among the worst teams in the major leagues.
As a junior in 2022, Cruz got off to a shaky start at the plate and committed 17 errors in 87 games, but his batting average picked up later in the season as the 6-foot-7 shortstop showed eye-popping. In July, he set MLB’s Statcast era record, which dates back to 2015, with an inside assist zoomed in for the first time at 97.8 miles per hour. Then, in August, Cruz hit a single ball that was measured at an exit velocity of 122.4 mph, making it the most hit ball tracked by Statcast.
Early in the season Cruz continued to show his progress as a hitter, entering Sunday’s game with a . 267 batting average and . 778 OPS. With a sixth walk that led him to third after he stole second and advanced on a teammate, Cruz extended his streak on base to 19 consecutive games, dating back to September.
Castro “hurts a lot because he is like my brother” He said Sunday, via an interpreter, Cruz injury. “It hurts the team, too. We all feel the pain.”
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