From friendship to fandom, Luis Cruz amazed by Shohei Ohtani’s accomplishments
Whenever he stepped into the batter’s box, the crowd at Dodger Stadium used to chant, “Cruuuuz!” He was a role player on the Los Angeles Dodgers for less than two seasons, but the team sold his replica jersey in the team store.
Luis Cruz was beloved by fans.
Over the weekend, it was the now-40-year-old Cruz who played the role of fan as he recounted the walk-off grand slam that made Shohei Ohtani the sixth player in baseball history to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in a season.
A decade ago, one season after he was designated for assignment by the Dodgers, Cruz played for the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan’s Pacific League.
There, the Mexican infielder encountered a second-year, two-way player who was considered the country’s top prospect.
The player was Ohtani, who was then a 19-year-old on the Nippon-Ham Fighters.
“I didn’t expect him to be this good as a hitter,” Cruz said in a phone interview.
Cruz certainly didn’t expect him to be the kind of hitter who could do what he did on Friday night to reach the 40-40 milestone.
In the bottom of the ninth inning of a 3-3 game, the Tampa Bay Rays brought in left-hander Colin Poche to face the left-handed-hitting Max Muncy with two outs and runners on second and third base.
Poche walked Muncy on five pitches to load the bases. Up next was Ohtani, who also bats left-handed. Cruz said if he were Ohtani, he would have looked for a fastball on the inside half of the plate and probably taken a pitch.
“I’m not going to step into the box thinking slider low and away,” Cruz said.
But that’s what Poche threw on the first pitch of the at-bat, and that’s what Ohtani sent over the right-field wall for his 40th home run of the season.
“For me, it was, like, how?” Cruz said as he laughed in disbelief.
Cruz, who remains an active player in Mexico’s winter league with his hometown Mayos de Navojoa, marveled at the confidence required to swing at such a pitch.
“If he hit a weak fly ball in the infield, he would’ve looked stupid,” Cruz said.
Ohtani said of his mindset in that at-bat: “I went in feeling that a single would be enough, or even a walk.”
