WATCH: Paul Skenes in disbelief as Pirates phenom hits mammoth homer

Modified Apr 24, 2025 04:09 GMT

Pirates phenom Paul Skenes was flabbergasted with Oneil Cruz's power (Getty)

A phenomenal talent himself, Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes was spotted admiring teammate Oneil Cruz's towering home run in tonight's game against the Los Angeles Angels. Skenes had his arms raised and his jaw dropped as Cruz recorded another towering smash for his sixth home run of the year.

Oneil Cruz hit a titanic 463-foot solo home run to dead center at Angel Stadium. The feat happened in the fifth inning of the contest off Angels pitcher Jack Kochanowicz to put the Pirates 2-0 up against the hosts.

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"Paul Skenes and Us. In awe of Oneil Cruz." - @ MLB

Since making his major league debut in 2021, Cruz has been regarded as one of the most powerful batter in the league. Just last season, he recorded an average exit velocity of 95.5 miles per hour which is good for third-highest in the league just behind American League MVP Aaron Judge and National League MVP Shohei Ohtani.

In addition, the young Pittsburgh star recorded that hardest-hit ball in all of the majors in 2024 by tallying a mind-boggling 121.5 miles per hour via a double against San Francisco Giants pitcher Camilo Doval in May of last year.

At the time of writing, the Pirates star is averaging 94 mph in exit velocity, a barrel percentage of 18%, a hard-hit percentage of 54%, and a bat speed record of 78.2 mph — all of which are within the 90th percentile among all qualified MLB batters.

Pirates limit Angels to two hits in dominant win

The Pirates were triumphant in tonight's contest against the Angels in Anaheim. In a scintillating pitching display, Pittsburgh limited the Angels to two hits courtesy of Travis d'Arnaud's double in the fifth inning and Jorge Soler's double in the ninth.

All-Star outfielder Bryan Reynolds opened the scoring in the third with a sacrifice fly that scored Isiah Kiner-Falefa. This was followed up by Oneil Cruz's towering solo homer in the fifth and finally closed out by Tommy Pham's RBI single on the top of the ninth frame.

In spite of their struggles this year, the Bucs have now won the series against the Angels and are gunning for their first series sweep of the year as the two squads meet again tomorrow. First pitch is at 9:29 p.m. ET.

About the author

Daniel Santiago is a journalist who has been reporting on baseball at Sportskeeda since 2022. He was drawn towards the sport after the underlying statistics and the analysis surrounding it grabbed his attention.

Daniel particularly enjoys furnishing reports about historic events in baseball and analyzing the game through a statistic-based outlook, based on Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference. This is in line with how he enjoyed watching baseball as a pastime. As a writer, he is very particular about cross-checking from reputable sources and doing his due diligence.

He became a lifelong Hideki Matsui fan after his exploits in the 2009 World Series for the New York Yankees. Among the current generation, Daniel's favorites include Shohei Ohtani and Jung Hoo Lee. Daniel is a huge follower of Asian baseball and both Ohtani and Lee have been in the top echelon of their respective leagues during their time with the NPB and KBO.

His favorite moment as a baseball fan was the final at-bat of the 2023 World Baseball Classic between Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. He believes there aren't many words to fittingly describe the intensity of the moment.

As an avid sports fan, Daniel watches other sports and Esports when not writing about baseball.

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Edited by Daniel Santiago