The Pittsburgh Pirates continue to slump this season, and they could use all the help they can get. However, star shortstop Oneil Cruz's "energy and effort" did the opposite on Tuesday.
Oneil Cruz was removed from Tuesday's game against the Milwaukee Brewers after the Pirates shortstop seemingly slowed down on a scoring opportunity. leading to a double play to end the seventh inning.
While Cruz acknowledged his mistake, saying he thought they were two outs in the inning, MLB analyst Dalton Feely sounded alarm bells on the incident, reminding his defensive error against the Texas Rangers on Friday. He said on "Baseball Today" on Wednesday (7:00 onwards):
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Pirates interim manager Don Kelly pulled Oneil Cruz from the eighth inning and replaced him with outfielder Alexander Canario in center field.
Oneil Cruz backs Pirates manager for pulling him from Brewers game
Following the 9-3 loss, Oneil Cruz acknowledged his mistake and backed the manager's decision to pull him from the game.
“I accepted it really well,” Cruz said. "Just because we have two guys here, [Andrew] McCutchen and Tommy Pham, who are really good examples. They always run hard, they always go out there [and give] their 100 percent, and that's a teaching point for me. I accepted it the way DK came to me and explained and presented it.”The Pirates shorststop had a strong start to the season but his form has declined over the last two months. Cruz is batting .205 with 13 home runs after the series finale against the Brewers.
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Edited by Chaitanya Prakash