Left-hander Cruz impressive in Altoona

Omar Cruz looks fidgety on the mound.

When the 6-foot, 22-year-old Mexican southpaw pitches out of the windup for Class AA Altoona, he steps onto the mound, brings his arms over his head and stares into the catcher while standing at a 45degree angle to the mound. His left foot is placed on the rubber, while his right foot pumps. As Cruz gets the sign, he picks his right heel up and places it down, over and over again, rocking back and forth on the mound.

He almost looks giddy, like he simply can’t wait to throw his next pitch. It begs the question: Where in the world does one learn to throw like this?

In Cruz’ s case, he learned it this season high Class A Greensboro’ s pitching coach, Matt Ford. Cruz came tothe Pirates last offseason as part of the return from the San Diego Pad res in the Joe Musgrove trade. There wasn’t really anything abnormal about his mechanics at that time, at least

nothing like his current Mike Clevinger-esque motion.

Cruz’s first outing with Greensboro was bad, though. He pitched just two innings as a starter, gave up a first-inning grand slam, walked five and was generally out of sorts. In review, Ford saw Cruz’s tempo was wrong. Most of pitching is about timing everything up, from the start of your windup to the release. Cruz’s timing was off, his arm was lagging behind his body on release and he wasn’t following through like the coaches wanted.

So Ford went out of the box. He introduced Cruz to the wacky, heel-lifting movement out of the windup. It was a way to prevent the body from becoming static on the mound, even if it looked a little odd. Cruz tried it in a bullpen session, liked how it felt and took it to the game. He pitched four no-hit innings with 10 strikeouts the first time he used it.

“I like to be unique, like no one has my mechanics or something like that,” Cruz said. “The other guy that I see that’s kind of the same was, I like Freddy Peralta of the Brewers. He comes [over his head] and does a lot of stuff with his legs. I like that, too.”

Cruz says his teammates like to impersonate him, poking good-natured fun at the odd motion. But all that matters is that it has worked. Since adopting his new mechanics, Cruz has allowed more than three runs in a start just two times, both with Altoona.

But Cruz wasn’t supposed to be in Altoona this long anyway. After all, he’s the third-youngest pitcher on the roster, and he originally was called up from Greensboro to cover one start. Right-hander Osvaldo Bido left the team at the end of June to represent the Dominican Republic in Olympics qualifying. Cruz came up for one outing, but he packed enough clothes for five days.

Then he threw six innings, allowing no earned runs, five hits and no walks in the start.

“I was talking with one of my teammates, [ catcher Raul Hernandez], and he said, ‘Bro, with this outing, you’re probably going to stay here. Text the clubbie from Greensboro to send your stuff,’ ” Cruz said.

He didn’t take it that far, waiting to hear instructions from the club itself. Cruz kept dealing, though. In his first four starts at Altoona, over 20⅓ innings, he had a 1.77 ERA, 18 strikeouts and 6 walks. After some time, he checked in with the powers that be: “I said, like, should I send my stuff from Greensboro?” Cruz recalls.

That was a welcome move for the pitcher, not only because of what it meant for him in the organizational hierarchy, but also because it’s nice to get out of Greensboro. He liked his teammates and the experience of being there, but it has a hitter’s ballpark. He allowed four homers in 28⅔ innings with the Grasshoppers. Since joining the Curve, he’s given up just two long balls in 46 innings.

Cruz isn’t just a different pitcher because of his mechanics or his home ballpark, though. This offseason, he began to emphasize working on his changeup. He still throws mostly fastballs, like he always has. It’s a pitch in the low-90s mph that relies mostly on good location to fool hitters. Beyond that, his main secondary pitch was the curveball, which he still uses. As he puts it, though, the Padres told him that a lot of hitters are fastball hitters, and a good bit of the rest can hammer a curveball. Not many at this level are sitting on changeups.

So Cruz worked on the offspeed pitch diligently. He didn’t pick up a tip or a specific way of throwing it that helped him out. He just threw it more, and in time it became more comfortable. Now, he says it’s his secondbest pitch, after the fastball.

If an astute fan watches him pitch, maybe they will pick up on Cruz’s pitch usage and how his changeup plays in different counts. More likely, they’ll be distracted by him rocking back and forth on the mound, pumping that right foot like a drummer with a kick pedal or a dog being pet in just the right spot.

It will be the thing that defines him to most onlookers, and perhaps his teammates and opponents on the field. To the Pirates, though, the results will dictate his future. So far, so good.