Ortiz's new offering makes all the difference in tough test

PITTSBURGH – Luis Ortiz screamed into his glove while walking back to the home dugout as Michael A. Taylor squeezed Nick Castellanos’ popup to center. He was clearly amped, feeding into the energy of a sold-out PNC Park, and it translated to one of the best starts of his young Major League career, spinning seven scoreless innings of three-hit ball against one of the best offenses in the game. That was more than enough for the Pirates, who went on to beat the Phillies Saturday night, 4-1, extending their win streak to six games.

After matching Phillies starter Cristopher Sánchez with scoreless frames through five, the Pirates finally broke through in the sixth with an Andrew McCutchen solo shot, followed by an Oneil Cruz RBI double later that inning and a two-run homer from Cruz in the eighth.

But as it has been so often this year, the starting pitching set the pace for the Pirates, and Ortiz has been brilliant in that role after starting the year in the bullpen. In his four starts this season, he has pitched to a 0.73 ERA, allowing just two runs over 24 2/3 innings.

"It's a reflection of hard work, my job lately,” said Ortiz, via interpreter and coach Stephen Morales. “Not just physically, but mentally. Just going out there, like I said, and just trusting my stuff."

That faith in his stuff was evident Saturday. Ortiz had all four of his pitches working -- the four-seamer, sinker, slider and cutter -- and though he threw them all fairly equally (he threw each at least 20 times in his 89-pitch outing), there was one in particular that the opposing clubhouse admitted gave them trouble.

“He was throwing that cutter that is kind of deceptive, looked like it was going to break and we all missed it,” Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto said. “We hit under it and had a lot of fly balls. I think he did a good job of keeping us off-balance with that.”

“I think the cutter that he’s developed is kind of a difference-maker for him,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said of Ortiz. “It keeps lefties honest, keeps them off the barrel.”

That cutter is new, something that pitching coach Oscar Marin and bullpen coach Justin Meccage approached him with in April when he was still in his bulk reliever role. Within about 10 days, according to manager Derek Shelton’s timeline, Ortiz started using it in games.

“Every time I go out there for my throwing program or when I get out there on the bump I work on it, because it's been huge for me, especially against lefties," Ortiz said.

But to start using it in games that quickly?

"If you want to work on it, yeah, it's possible,” Ortiz said with a smile.

That work has paid off. The Phillies put seven cutters in play, all for outs. That includes five outs against left-handed hitters. Those southpaw sluggers gave him significant problems as a rookie last season, recording a .965 OPS against him.

Those struggles were mostly tied to him not having a reliable third offering to throw to lefties. The changeup just didn’t take, so the thought was to instead embrace the velocity of his fastballs and movement of his slider and come up with a hybrid of the two.

“Just knowing the [arm] slot where he throws and what he can do with a baseball, we felt it would be more efficient than really trying to focus on that changeup,” Marin said.

The results are showing early. Lefty hitters have a .261 batting average against the cutter in a limited sample size, and while it doesn’t miss a ton of bats, it’s tough to square up. Left-handers entered Saturday averaging just an 84.8 mph exit velocity against the cutter, leading to weak contact for quick outs.

And for someone who has done a little of almost every role this year, getting outs is the name of the game.

“He’s been in the bullpen, he’s been in the rotation,” Marin said. “We opened for him, he started. The mentality before it was, ‘OK, I have to start, so I have to do it this way. I’m relieving, so I have to do it this way.’ [Now, it’s] ‘I know what I’m here to do. I’m here to get outs.’ I think that’s been the biggest change for him.”

His teammates see that too.

“The way he's been pitching lately, he's gonna throw his heart out in every start,” said Cruz, via Morales. “... It took a little bit of time, but now it looks like he's in the right spot.”