Ortiz sharp vs. Brewers as he tries to demonstrate consistency

PITTSBURGH -- Luis L. Ortiz’s sophomore season, as a whole, has featured more valleys than peaks. He’s spent roughly the same amount of time with the Pirates as Triple-A Indianapolis, unable to consistently replicate the fire and flash from last season’s cup of coffee. But over the past week, Ortiz has inched closer towards looking like a mainstay in the rotation.

Ortiz recorded his first quality start since June 23 -- shaking off a rough second inning to deliver six innings of two-run ball -- as the Pirates beat the Brewers, 4-2, on Monday at PNC Park.

“It feels awesome,” Ortiz said through team interpreter Stephen Morales. “I feel pretty happy with that outing today. It's just a product of the work that I've put in the last few months just to get back to what I was last year.”

As well as Ortiz ended up pitching, as a whole, the 23-year-old appeared on track for a quick hook given how his second inning of work unfolded.

Ortiz began the frame by walking Sal Frelick and Willy Adames before plunking Mark Canha, allowing the Brewers to load the bases without swinging the bat. Victor Caratini and Brice Turang, Milwaukee’s next two batters, burned Ortiz for his erratic command, stringing together back-to-back sacrifice flies on back-to-back pitches to put two runs on the board. Evidenced by his pitch chart, Ortiz was all over the map, throwing the same amount of balls as strikes (11).

But from the second inning onwards, Ortiz settled into a groove that carried him the rest of the night, allowing just three baserunners (one walk, two hits). After throwing 22 pitches in the second inning, Ortiz averaged 12 pitches per inning the rest of the way, throwing 29 strikes to 17 balls.

“He got back in the strike zone for sure, a little bit more,” said Brewers manager Craig Counsell. “We just had a couple of empty at-bats, and they breezed through it pretty good. We had some two-out chances late, but his ball was down, sinker was pretty good. We didn’t do much after that.”

Manager Derek Shelton credited not only pitching coach Oscar Marin’s second-inning mound visit, but also rookie catcher Endy Rodríguez’s ability to help Ortiz.

“There were a couple times where he started to get out of sorts again and if you watched Endy's body language and the conversation with him, he got him back on track,” Shelton said.

Added Ortiz: “Endy knows me well and he knows which button to push when it needs to be pushed. He knows the type of pitcher that I am and that plays an important part of pushing me to do better.”

Along with his pitching coach and catcher, Ortiz was also the beneficiary of some phenomenal defense by the Pirates. In the third inning, shortstop Liover Peguero backhanded a grounder, made a jump throw from the six-hole and, with the help of a swipe tag from Alfonso Rivas, retired William Contreras.

In the fifth, Ke’Bryan Hayes reached over the third-base dugout railing to make a tough catch. In the sixth, Hayes and Peguero collaborated on an unorthodox 5-6-3, inning-ending double play.

Ortiz’s quality start against the Brewers comes on the heels of a solid performance against the Royals last Tuesday. Against Kansas City, Ortiz operated as the bulk pitcher following an opener, pitching five innings of one-run ball with five strikeouts to two walks against the Royals. In total, Ortiz has allowed three earned runs across 11 innings (2.45 ERA) in his past two outings.

For Ortiz, the riddle to solve going forward is consistency. He has enjoyed several strong outings this season, but has yet to have a stretch of excellence that spans a handful of starts. After allowing two earned runs across 7 2/3 innings to the Rangers on May 22, he allowed three earned runs (two home runs) in five innings to the Mariners. After throwing eight innings of one-run ball against the Mariners on June 23, he allowed four earned runs (two home runs) against the Padres on June 29.

The rookie’s next outing, should he remain in the rotation, will likely come against the Braves in Atlanta, a tall task for any starter. Ortiz has thrived under stressful circumstances before; in his second career start, he walked into Yankee Stadium with Aaron Judge chasing 60 home runs and threw five innings of one-run ball, keeping Judge hitless in the process.

Ortiz has shown bursts of top-of-the-rotation stuff before. Against Atlanta, and moving forward, Ortiz’s task is turning those bursts into a steady flame.