What Luis Ortiz had done to this point felt like finding a $20 bill in your back pocket.
A solid pitcher but not necessarily one of the Pirates’ premium prospects, the 23-year-old right-hander spent the majority of this season in Double-A Altoona, received a cup of coffee as a reward and chugged it. Almost overnight, Ortiz blossomed into a future rotation piece.
In three MLB starts prior to Saturday, Ortiz posted a 1.17 ERA, struck out 17 over 15 1/3 innings and threw nine pitches 100.0 mph or greater, making him one of only two Pirates starting pitchers since 2008 to reach triple digits. And, yeah, that Gerrit Cole guy is pretty good.
But as Ortiz looked to close his busy year with a bang, the St. Louis Cardinals — and Ortiz’s fastball command — did not cooperate. With his velocity down and his control scattershot, Ortiz recorded just two outs during a difficult first inning, the avalanche of runs sealing a 13-3 Cardinals victory at Busch Stadium not long after it started.
The outing obviously shouldn’t define Ortiz, who has pitched extremely well and should challenge for a rotation spot next season. But it also wasn’t good.
Ortiz allowed a leadoff double to second baseman Brendan Donovan before walking the next two hitters to load the bases with nobody out. After third baseman Nolan Arenado bounced to Diego Castillo at first base, Cardinals legend Albert Pujols made Ortiz pay for hanging a 2-2 slider.
The roller found a hole through the left side. It wasn’t particularly well struck — like Pujols’ 701st homer on Friday — but it did the job. It was also an outcome Ortiz has mostly prevented while holding opposing hitters to a .033 average (1 for 30) with two strikes prior to Friday.
It was plenty obvious by this point Ortiz didn’t have his best stuff. His fastball on the night averaged 97.4 mph, which is down 1.2 mph from its norm, and he followed the Pujols single by walking right fielder Alec Burleson on four pitches to load the bases once again, this time for former Pirate Corey Dickerson.
Ortiz left another slider up, and Dickerson made him pay, crushing it 433 feet to the seats in right-center field for a grand slam. It was the first home run Ortiz has allowed at this level and effectively put the game out of reach. Manager Derek Shelton allowed Ortiz to face one more batter before pulling him at 38 pitches.
The outcome for the Pirates is what it is at this point. They’re 59-99 and will almost assuredly lose 100 games for the second consecutive season, something that has happened only one other time in franchise history and not since the 1950s.
But if the Pirates are going to pull out of this funk next year and beyond, they need to lean on pitchers such as Ortiz, who was second among Pittsburgh farmhands with 138 strikeouts.
It’s been a quick ascent for Ortiz, who last season was pitching for Low-A Bradenton and bypassed High-A Greensboro entirely. His firm fastball complements a wipeout slider. His biggest project this offseason should be finding a reliable third pitch; Ortiz has a change-up but uses it cautiously.
The Pirates got two runs in the bottom of the second inning when Jason Delay snuck a grounder past Paul DeJong at short. Their other run came in the eighth, when Cal Mitchell cracked the second of his two doubles and scored on an error.
After Delay's single, the Cardinals responded with four runs in the second off Zach Thompson. Arenado made it a 7-2 game when he drove a Thompson cutter the opposite way to right-center for a double.
Burleson extended the Cardinals’ lead to 9-2 by connecting on another cutter from Thompson, this one going to center field for a single.
Yadier Molina, feted along with Pujols and Sunday starter Adam Wainwright, grounded into a double play to end the second — but not before Pujols scored on a soft liner Rodolfo Castro couldn’t handle at second base.
Thompson struggled early but finished his outing strong, posting four consecutive 1-2-3 innings before giving way to Junior Fernandez, who made his Pirates debut. The Pirates claimed Fernandez off waivers from the Cardinals on Sept. 7.
