Pirates' Oneil Cruz hits another milestone with his 97.8 mph throw from shortstop

Luke Williams didn’t hit the baseball exceptionally hard.

It came off the bat of the Miami Marlins left fielder at only 73.7 mph, according to Statcast, and rolled across the loanDepot Park infield and into shortstop Oneil Cruz’s glove Thursday night.

Effortlessly, Cruz bent over to field the ball (no small feat for a man who stands 6-foot-7), switched it to his right hand, cocked his powerful arm, patted his glove once and unleashed history.

The play took 4.01 seconds from crack of the bat until splat in first baseman Michael Chavis’ glove. It barely beat Williams, who was timed at 4.18 seconds down the line, according to MLB.com.

But what really matters is the throw: It was clocked at 97.8 mph, the hardest infield throw in the Statcast era (since 2015) and 24.1 mph harder than Williams hit it.

The throw surpassed the previous hardest throw — 97.3 mph recorded by Fernando Tatis Jr. of the San Diego Padres against the Seattle Mariners on Sept. 20, 2020. It also beat Cruz’s previous high — 96.7 mph in his 2022 debut June 20, when he threw out the Chicago Cubs’ Willson Contreras.

Cruz has started 22 of his 23 games since he was promoted from Triple-A Indianapolis and immediately inserted into the Pirates’ starting lineup. He has only two errors among his 117 chances while participating in 21 double plays, including one that rescued starting pitcher Zach Thompson from a first-inning jam Thursday.

“My defense really picked me up, for sure,” Thompson said. “A guy like Oneil being able to throw the ball across the infield at 100 mph, whatever the heck he throws it, it’s really nice.

“It lets you throw a lot more strikes knowing that those guys are back there.”

Thompson joked that he would like to talk grip with Cruz to determine how he attains such velocity.

“Some good rise on that, too. He’s a freak,” Thompson said.

He said there’s also no concern if Cruz might stumble or bobble the ball.

“You don’t really worry about it too much. It doesn’t really matter,” Thompson said. “Once he fields it, I’m, like, ‘OK, he’s got it, no matter how fast the runner is.’ ”

Next up for the 23-year-old Cruz is improving his batting average (.212) and OPS (.688) and limiting his strikeout total (33 in 91 plate appearances).

The Pirates were in Denver on Friday for the start of a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.