Ortiz goes through growing pain as reliever in Pirates loss

Growing pains are going to come with development. It is true for every player at every position, and it certainly applies when a transition is being made on the fly and while playing in major-league games. Luis Ortiz spent the 2022 and 2023 seasons as a starter at the major-league level after starting 67 of 72 games in the minor leagues. Being brought up as a starter constitutes a different lesson plan than that of being brought up as a reliever. 

One of those lessons is runner inheritance and how to pitch with runners on base upon entering a game. That lesson was learned the hard way by Ortiz in the third inning of the Pirates' 3-2 loss to the Brewers Wednesday evening at PNC Park, in which the visitors plated three unearned runs on one base hit, two walks, and two hit batsmen.

"I know my job," Ortiz said through translator Stephen Morales. "I have to go out there no matter what the situation and just get outs. With men on base or not, I’ve got to get outs.”

Derek Shelton decided to bullpen the game with Josh Fleming serving as the opener, pushing Quinn Priester's start to Friday in San Francisco. Fleming gave way to Ortiz, and Roansy Contreras and Hunter Stratton followed.

Ortiz's leg was the one in this relay in which the Pirates fell behind.

The top of the third inning unraveled from the beginning when Rowdy Tellez's flip to Fleming on a grounder from the speedy Sal Frelick went wide, allowing Frelick to reach. Brice Turang drew a one-out walk to set up a pair of runners on base for the relieving Ortiz.

Ortiz would allow an RBI single to William Contreras before hitting Willy Adames with a 2-0 pitch. Two batters later, Ortiz hit Rhys Hoskins with a 3-2 pitch to allow Turang to score. 

Blake Perkins then drew a bases-loaded walk to plate William Contreras for the third run of that frame. 

Frelick and Turang's runs were charged to Fleming, but one of those came via Ortiz hitting Hoskins. The pitch that beaned Adames was on an 0-2 slider, which Shelton claimed was rushed by Ortiz because of the ticking pitch clock.

"We can't hit Hoskins with the 3-2 pitch and miss by that much, but I think the one that's a little bit frustrating is he gets Adames 0-2 and I think he was going to get a clock violation, and instead of stepping off or even taking the clock violation, he kind of rushed through it and hit him in the back with a slider," Shelton said. "Those are things we have to avoid because they end up costing us runs."

Ortiz confirmed the pitch clock gave him trouble.

“The pitch clock came to me really quick, then it rushed me a little bit on that," he said. "I think that’s why I had to rush to home plate. That’s the result you got -- I hit Adames -- but that got to me there.”

Ortiz rebounded to pitch scoreless fourth and fifth innings. He pitched out of a two-on, two-out situation in the fourth and induced a fly out from Adames to end that inning.

“It’s as easy as leaving behind what happened in the previous inning and just go out there and attack the strike zone," Ortiz said. "New inning, just went out there and attacked the strike zone.”

Roansy Contreras and Stratton combined for four scoreless innings beginning in the sixth. Each allowed two hits.

"They did great," Shelton said. "Flem was really effective. I know he walked Turang there, but other than that, soft contact. We had a play that we should have made for the first out of that inning that we didn't make. But other than that, Stratton was really good and Contreras was good. I mean, for it being a bullpen day, I think we did a really good job."

The bullpen effort benefitted from two key plays from Jared Triolo in the sixth, who kept a run off of the board twice. With Frelick on second base and with one out, Turang rocketed a grounder up the middle. Triolo made a diving back-handed stop to prevent the ball from going into the outfield and prevent Frelick from scoring to give the Brewers a two-run lead.

"The importance of controlling the run game's pretty big and as we saw, it comes down to one run in a lot of these games," Triolo said. "Controlling the run game and keeping them out of scoring position."

Triolo combined with Henry Davis to throw out Frelick at home on an attempted steal with William Contreras at the plate in the sixth. Milwaukee sent Turang in motion and Frelick broke for home upon Davis' throw, and Triolo stepped up to cut it off and shoot it towards home plate, where Davis applied the tag for the out. William Contreras walked to put runners on the corners, but Roansy Contreras struck out Adames to end the inning and keep the deficit at one run.

The Pirates' defense entered Wednesday's game with zero runners caught stealing this season. They earned their first two when Fleming picked off Perkins in the second inning and when Davis and Triolo connected in the sixth.

"We ran the comeback play about as well as we've ever seen it run," Shelton said. "Henry was good. Triolo was good. We got a really fast runner on the backside of it. Our pitchers did a better job and Henry made good throws."