{"id":82084,"date":"2024-08-02T20:16:27","date_gmt":"2024-08-03T00:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=82084"},"modified":"2024-08-02T20:16:27","modified_gmt":"2024-08-03T00:16:27","slug":"pirates-wont-move-oneil-cruz-shortstop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/08\/02\/pirates-wont-move-oneil-cruz-shortstop\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates Star Isn\u2019t Changing Positions, Despite Public Outcry"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday evening, three errors by Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Oneil Cruz<\/a> renewed the outcry to move him off shortstop. That night, the Pirates suffered a disappointing 5-4 loss against the Astros in Houston. It prevented the Bucs from sweeping the series after winning the first two games. A solid outing by surprise starter Jake Woodford<\/a>, making his Pirates debut, was wasted. Woodford pitched five innings of two-hit ball but allowed three runs, all of which were unearned, thanks to Cruz.<\/p>\n

The usually reliable reliever Colin Holderman<\/a> was charged with the loss when he entered the game in the sixth inning and gave up the winning home run to pinch-hitter Mauricio Dub\u00f3n<\/a>. But it never should have gotten to that point. In the second inning, the Astros\u2019 Jeremy Pe\u00f1a<\/a> reached on a throwing error by Cruz and scored with two outs. In the third with two outs, Cruz raced into left field and muffed a fly ball that could have easily been caught by left fielder Bryan Reynolds<\/a>. Cruz then followed that with a bad throw home. The double error allowed two runs to score.
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