Oneil Cruz put Pittsburgh’s power surge into the record books Wednesday night, unloading a hanging sweeper from Brewers starter Logan Henderson for his 172nd home run of the season and giving the Pirates a new franchise mark in the process.
The blast, a 113.1 mph missile into the right-field seats at PNC Park, trimmed the deficit to one in the fourth inning of an eventual 5-4 loss to Milwaukee. It also pushed the Pirates past the previous single-season home run record of 171, set in 1999. Pittsburgh would tack on two more long balls after Cruz’s shot - a two-run homer from Brandon Lowe in the fifth and a solo drive from Rafael Flores Jr. in the sixth - to reach 174 on the year.
The milestone only sharpened the contrast with the final score. Pittsburgh has added 57 home runs to last year’s total of 117, its fourth-largest jump from one season to the next, with 10 games still remaining. But the surge at the plate was not enough to overcome a rough night on the mound, where Jared Jones allowed three runs in five innings and Carmen Mlodzinski gave up two more over two innings.
“It's kind of crazy to think about,” Lowe said of setting the homer record. “A franchise that has been around for as long as this one has, to etch yourself as an offense into the history books like that, it's pretty impressive.”
For the Pirates, the record was built on a steady stream of home runs that have defined their season in different ways. Rookie Konnor Griffin launched the first homer of his career on his 20th birthday, April 24.
Tyler Callihan had his big night against the Dodgers on June 11, hitting the first two homers of his career, including one off Shohei Ohtani. Esmerlyn Valdez then homered in four straight games during a hot July stretch.
There have also been the late-game swings that changed outcomes. Bryan Reynolds walked off the Twins on May 30. Lowe and Flores teamed up on Aug. 19 with back-to-back ninth-inning homers to beat the Tigers and win the series.
“What has been really impressive with most of our guys is that they're going up there to have good at-bats, and it ends up being a home run,” manager Don Kelly said.
That was the story again against Milwaukee, especially on Flores’ opposite-field blast that came off the bat at 107 mph.
“We're a really good offensive team, and we've shown it the whole year,” Flores said. “It's just sometimes, you win games, sometimes, you lose games.”
Henderson saw the same thing from the other dugout.
“They're good at hitting the long ball, and you just have to be sure that you're executing pitches,” Henderson said on the opposing side. “Not that you don't feel that way going into an outing against any other team, but you definitely want to limit damage against those guys.”
The home-run spike is exactly what general manager Ben Cherington was trying to address in the offseason. Pittsburgh finished last in MLB last season with 117 homers, 31 behind the 29th-ranked Cardinals, who had 148. The Pirates also ranked last in OPS at .655 and in RBI with 561.
The improvement has been dramatic by any recent standard. Excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Pittsburgh’s rise from 2025 to 2026 is its biggest year-over-year increase since a jump of 63 homers from 2011 to 2012.
Lowe, acquired for the final year of his contract, has been right in the middle of it. The two-time All-Star has put together one of the strongest power seasons of his career and set the club’s single-season home run record for a second baseman, topping Neil Walker’s 23 from 2014.
Cherington also brought in O’Hearn on a two-year deal, and despite missing 50 games with multiple quad injuries, he has still managed a career-high 18 home runs. Cruz, meanwhile, has missed more than 60 games and still sits second on the team in homers.
Even with the record-setting power display, Pittsburgh is still looking up in the postseason race.
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