PITTSBURGH -- Luis L. Ortiz acknowledged he dealt with ¡°a lot of emotions¡± on Friday, ahead of his start against the Pirates. But by the time he took the mound for the Guardians¡¯ series opener at PNC Park, the right-hander¡¯s focus was on one thing.
¡°I'm pretty sure [the Pirates] really want to beat me, too, so I went there and tried to beat them as well,¡± Ortiz said through team interpreter Agustin Rivero.
Ortiz delivered in his first start against the Pirates since they traded him to the Guardians over the offseason, and his offense gave him plenty of support in Cleveland¡¯s 10-7 win over Pittsburgh in Friday¡¯s series opener at PNC Park.
Ortiz allowed two runs on four hits and three walks over five innings while striking out eight. The offense tallied a season-high 10 runs on 14 hits, including a season-high six doubles.
¡°I thought Luis was great,¡± manager Stephen Vogt said. ¡°He came out a little amped up, kind of as expected, spraying it just a little bit. For him to get through five after his pitch count got so high through three, he really settled down those last two innings and got six huge outs for us there.¡±
Ortiz signed with the Pirates as an international free agent on Oct. 2, 2018, and he spent the past three seasons with Pittsburgh after making his MLB debut on Sept. 13, 2022. Cleveland acquired him on Dec. 10, in a series of trades that included sending Andr¨¦s Gim¨¦nez to the Blue Jays.
¡°Not much time has passed since the trade, and then on to the season,¡± Ortiz said. ¡°A lot of familiar faces, a lot of guys that I know, that I came up with. But still, now I'm on this side. My job was to get outs and attack, and that¡¯s what I tried to do today.¡±
Ortiz was able to reconnect with some of his old teammates pregame Friday, but Pittsburgh¡¯s lineup didn¡¯t wait for him to reacquaint himself in-game. One of the Pirates¡¯ two runs off him came on his first pitch of the game. Oneil Cruz hit an opposite-field leadoff solo homer on a 96.1 mph four-seamer off the outside corner.
Ortiz bounced back to record three strikeouts in the first, but he threw 27 pitches in the inning. After a 16-pitch second, he threw 29 pitches in the third, when he issued a pair of walks, to Andrew McCutchen and Enmanuel Valdez. McCutchen scored on a Joey Bart single.
Ortiz retired the next eight batters he faced to get through the outing in line for a win.
¡°I thought he was great,¡± catcher Bo Naylor said. ¡°You kind of get punched early and you have a choice: to either back down, let it affect you, or to flush it and be able to come back and keep attacking the zone. And he definitely did [the latter]. Super proud of him.¡±
Ortiz had a rough season debut, when he allowed seven runs on nine hits and four walks against the Padres on March 31. He¡¯s had three straight solid performances since that outing, during which he¡¯s allowed a total of six runs on 12 hits and just five walks with 21 strikeouts over 16 2/3 innings.
Ortiz has a five-pitch mix (four-seamer, slider, cutter, changeup and sinker) and good stuff. His four-seamer maxed out at 98.3 mph on Friday. A big key for him is to attack the strike zone, an area he continues to show improvement.
¡°He¡¯s got a bunch of pitches going in a bunch of different directions, to put it simply,¡± Naylor said. ¡°When you're in the zone with multiple pitches as well, it doesn't allow the hitter to be able to eliminate as much as they would like to.¡±
Naylor also played a key role in Friday¡¯s win, when he went 3-for-5 with three RBIs, including a solo homer in the third and a two-run double in the fourth. He was one of five Guardians to tally a multihit game, along with Steven Kwan, Lane Thomas, Jos¨¦ Ram¨ªrez and Gabriel Arias.
Naylor entered Friday with a .162/.273/.243 slash line in 12 games, with six walks and 10 strikeouts.
¡°It's awesome to see, obviously,¡± Naylor said of his performance on Friday. ¡°But I think that for the other days that I've had good at-bats that didn't have results coming out of it, I feel like I'm at the same spot. I can come out of the day with a winning mindset, ultimately putting myself in a good position for the next day, coming forth.¡±