After joining the 300-homer club, Pittsburgh Pirates designated hitter Marcell Ozuna stunned teammates by recounting every career blast in vivid detail.
Pittsburgh Pirates designated hitter Marcell Ozuna is a large man.
He is listed on their roster at 6-foot-1 and 251 pounds. That is a pretty strong indicator of why his nickname is “The Big Bear.”
The 35-year-old apparently has a memory matching his physical size. Ozuna has hit 300 home runs in his career and can recall each one.
Ozuna hit his 300th home run on Friday night in the Pirates’ 5-2 loss to the Giants at Oracle Park in San Francisco. Longtime Pittsburgh head of major league video Kevin Roach put together a compilation reel of Ozuna’s home runs that players and coaches watched before Saturday night’s game with the Giants.
Becoming just the 167th major-league player to hit 300 homers since 1900 is impressive. That Ozuna, much like a professional golfer who remembers each shot, is one of the rare baseball players who can recall so many moments vividly is equally impressive.
In a sport played nearly daily for six months, it is difficult for managers and players to have such a sharp recall of events. Or even know the day of the week, many times, as the days seem to all run together.
“He was talking about each one as they went; the pitcher, the situation, it's really cool,” Pirates manager Don Kelly told reporters on Saturday.
Ozuna has never homered off anyone on Pittsburgh's current pitching staff. The most homers he has against a pitcher is six off San Diego Padres right-hander Nick Pivetta.
The Pirates have held Ozuna to six longballs in 331 plate appearances over his 14-year career. He hit his 100th career homer in 2018 off Pirates right-hander Chad Kuhl in St. Louis when Ozuna was playing for the Cardinals.
Ozuna went 1 for 6 with a double and three strikeouts on Saturday night in Pittsburgh's 13-3 victory over the Giants that evened the three-game series. The win was the Pirates’ sixth in the last eight games.
Ozuna has yet to fully get untracked this season after signing a one-year, $12-million contract on the eve of spring training as a free agent. In 33 games, the right-handed hitter is batting .197/.266/.323 with four home runs.
Kelly, though, has a longstanding relationship with Ozuna as they were teammates on the Miami Marlins in 2016 and 2017. Kelly sees signs that Ozuna is still an impact hitter despite the slow start.
"The thing that's always stood out to me is the way he's able to drive the ball the other way," Kelly said. “When he's going good, he has that right-center power, as he did at home last week when he went to the right of the batter's eye and hit it out that way. He can pull it anywhere, but when he's going to right-center, he's in a really good spot."
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