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

Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes was spotted admiring teammate Oneil Cruz's towering home run in Wednesday'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 dead center at Angel Stadium. The feat happened in the fifth inning off Angels pitcher Jack Kochanowicz to put the Pirates 2-0 up against the hosts.

Since making his major league debut in 2021, Cruz has been regarded as one of the most powerful batters in the league. Just last season, he recorded an average exit velocity of 95.5 miles per hour, which is good forthe 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 the 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.

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 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.

The Bucs are gunning for their first series sweep of the year as the two squads meet again on Thursday. First pitch is at 9:29 p.m. ET.

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