In his final outing of the 2024 season, Luis Ortiz delivered seven innings of four-hit ball and struck out five to lead the Pirates to a 2-1 win over the Brewers at PNC Park.
It was ultimately his best outing of the season and encapsulated a year in which he started in the bullpen and became one of the Pirates' best starters, outside of Paul Skenes and Mitch Keller, by the end. He'll finish the year with a 7-6 record, a 3.32 ERA and 107 strikeouts in 135 2/3 innings.
"I think this last start, what it means is all the work that I put in throughout the year to stay up here and stay healthy. I think that's the key," Ortiz said through Pirates assistant coach and translator Stephen Morales.
On this night, Ortiz worked efficiently and decisively. Despite walking Brice Turang to lead off the game, Ortiz battled to set down the next four hitters in order before giving up a solo home run to Jake Bauers on a sinker over the middle of the plate. Ortiz then rebounded to retire 10 of the next 11 hitters.
Rhys Hoskins tallied Milwaukee's final hit of the night when he barreled another sinker that caught far too much of the plate to left field before Ortiz got Sal Frelick to fly out to center field to finish his outing and hand the game off to the bullpen.
One of the bright spots for Ortiz in this outing was his cutter, which he threw 27% of the time and was his second most-used pitch. It was also a sign of his growth as his cutter was a pitch that he started to develop in the middle of the season.
"We’re gonna talk about that being his last start, the culmination of his season, that’s a new pitch," Derek Shelton said. "For how much it played and how much he was able to make that pitch better during a major league season is something that’s really important."
From starting the year in the bullpen to becoming one of the strengths of the pitching staff by the end, Ortiz showed a lot this season, including his commitment to improving and helping the team win. Ortiz said that when he was told out of spring training that he would start in the bullpen, he wasn't disappointed or sad, he just wanted to do whatever he could to help the team.
"All that was in my mind was to try and help the team in as many ways as possible. Whatever happens after that, it happens," Ortiz said. "The other thing I was focused on was to just work hard and give the team a good shot to win."
That type of mindset was what stood out to Shelton when the decision was made as he believed it helped Ortiz develop into the pitcher he became by the end of the season.
"It stair-stepped up to where he was at," Shelton said. "We opened for him three or four times. It was like, ‘Alright, now we’re ready to transition him back into the starter role.’
Ortiz didn't start his first game until June 26 and had up-and-down success out of the bullpen throwing one or two innings at a time. He even worked a three-inning save on June 1 and struck out three and only allowed one hit against the Blue Jays. From there, he started to transition into a starter and while he got beat up at times, he gave the Pirates another quality arm in the rotation during the second half of the season.
"He’s continued to progress. Some young pitchers would be mad they didn’t make the rotation," Shelton said. "He continued to get better throughout the year. Going back to the cutter point, we have a major league starter, which has really been fun to watch."
Now, Ortiz will go into the offseason with an opportunity to contribute to the rotation again next season. He's shown what he's capable of, including a final month of the season where he produced a 3.97 ERA in 22 2/3 innings while striking out 19 hitters, walking seven and limiting hitters to a .233 average.
"There were a lot of changes for sure, from last year to this year. Where to pitch and stuff like that," Ortiz said. "I added the cutter and that has been a really good weapon for me. You know, I'm proud of how hard I've worked with the staff. It worked for me."
