Johan Oviedo, Luis Ortiz toss 10-plus shutout innings; Pirates sweep Reds

When Johan Oviedo lasted only a combined 4 2/3 innings in his first two starts for the Pittsburgh Pirates, they challenged the 24-year-old right-hander by having him simulate game-like situations in practice.

There is no simulating the electricity Luis Ortiz flashed for the Pirates in his major-league debut, as he twice touched triple digits in the first inning, topped 99 mph 26 times, including 100 mph six times.

The Pirates right-handers were dazzling in a doubleheader against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday at Great American Ball Park, providing promise for the future of the Pirates’ young starting rotation.

After Oviedo allowed one hit in five scoreless innings in a 6-1 win in the first game, Ortiz allowed one hit in 5 2/3 scoreless innings in a 1-0 win in the nightcap as the Pirates ran their winning streak to three. They’ll go for a sweep in the series finale at 12:35 p.m. Wednesday.

Pirates manager Derek Shelton called it “just an unbelievable debut.”

“That’s the thing you worry about with a major-league debut: You worry about a major-league debut with a guy who throws 100, that he’s going to try to come out and overthrow, and he didn’t do that,” Shelton said on the AT&T SportsNet postgame show. “He was really efficient, kept going after people and I think that’s a really good sign.”

The 6-foot-2, 240-pound Ortiz, a product of the Pirates’ Dominican Republic academy, joined Gerrit Cole as the only Pirates pitchers to touch triple digits since pitch speed data started being tracked in 2008. (Cole did it eight times against the Angels on June 21, 2013). Ortiz threw 53 four-seam fastballs, which averaged 99.0 mph.

Ortiz, 23, became the second Pirates pitcher to throw 5 2/3 or more shutout innings with one or fewer hits in his debut. Nick Kingham threw seven scoreless with one hit against St. Louis on April 29, 2018.

Ortiz threw gas from the start. Of Ortiz’s nine pitches in the first inning, eight were fastballs and seven were clocked at 98.5 or faster. He hit 100.0 mph on his first pitch to Reds No. 2 hitter Nick Senzel and 100.4 on a fastball that Donovan Solano grounded out to third.

Ortiz said he came out with a plan to attack.

“I was already filled with joy, just excited and happy for the opportunity,” Ortiz said in an on-field interview with AT&T SportsNet. “I knew internally that I had to demonstrate that I have everything it takes to be here, and I’m grateful that I was able to demonstrate that.”

The only hit Ortiz allowed was a double to Stuart Fairchild in the third. He gave up back-to-back walks to Matt Reynolds and Fairchild in the fifth but got Chuckie Robinson to ground into a double play. Ortiz walked TJ Friedl, then struck out Senzel and Solano before being replaced by Chase De Jong, who got Aristides Aquino to fly out.

The Pirates took a 1-0 lead in the seventh when Rodolfo Castro doubled and scored on Kevin Newman’s single off the glove of Reynolds at short.

De Jong (5-2), Yohan Ramirez and Duane Underwood Jr. kept the Reds hitless over the final three-plus innings, as Underwood pitched the ninth to earn his first career save.

“It’s a great opportunity. Shelty trusted me to take the ball and get the save, so that’s exactly what I did,” said Underwood, who was impressed with Ortiz in May while on a rehab assignment with Double-A Altoona. “I thought the kid was special when I first saw him, so it was a great opportunity and a great honor to close out the game for him.”

It was the second consecutive impressive performance by Ortiz, who had nine strikeouts in six no-hit innings for Triple-A Indianapolis in a 5-4 loss to Omaha on Thursday. The Pirates added him to their taxi squad Monday before making him the 29th man for the doubleheader.

After two inefficient starts for the Pirates, Oviedo flashed both the stuff and command that Shelton said prompted them to acquire him from St. Louis in the Jose Quintana trade.

“We knew there were certain things we wanted to do with him,” Shelton said. “When you acquire a guy, it’s not instantaneous. The fact that he took to it and was able to execute it, that’s a really good sign.”

For Oviedo, it was about improving his efficiency. He tossed a combined 134 pitches in his first two starts, giving up four runs on three hits and eight walks in shutout losses to Toronto (4-0) on Sept. 2 and the New York Mets (10-0) in the second game of a doubleheader Sept. 7.

Pirates pitching coach Oscar Marin said on the AT&T SportsNet pregame show that he stressed for Oviedo to try to throw strikes on two of every three pitches. Oviedo fell just shy, throwing 44 strikes on 74 pitches (59.5%) in getting six groundouts and four flyouts.

“I tried to get ahead with every count, with every pitch, let them swing and let my defense work,” Oviedo said. “We worked really good in the bullpen about throwing everything for strikes. Thankfully, we got the results.”

Oviedo got off to a good start by retiring the first eight batters he faced. He cruised through the first two innings on 19 pitches (13 strikes), throwing nine pitches in the second inning and eight in the fourth.

The Pirates provided run support by homering three times for the second consecutive game at Cincinnati. It was the third time this season the Pirates have had back-to-back games with three or more homers, also doing so June 23-24 and June 29-30.

“I thought we did a good job backing the ball up,” Shelton said. “We didn’t try to do too much with two strikes. And with young hitters sometimes that can happen. We really executed a plan, and that’s encouraging to see. Of course, Bryan getting us on the board early is helpful.”

They scored their first run, however, by playing small ball. Michael Chavis singled to start the third inning, advanced to second on a two-out walk by Oneil Cruz and scored on a Bryan Reynolds single to center for a 1-0 Pirates lead.

Ke’Bryan Hayes made it 2-0 in the fourth inning with his career-best seventh home run, a solo shot that sailed 425 feet to left field. It was Hayes’ first homer in 20 games.

“It’s a small sample size, but the last week or so I’ve been feeling a lot better at the plate, being able to lay off the pitches that I don’t want to swing at or that I don’t think I can do damage on,” Hayes said. “Just being in a good position and being on time for those ones that are over the plate and just trying to put a good swing on.”

Reynolds homered for the second consecutive game and fourth time this season by hitting his 23rd of the season on a 394-foot solo shot with two outs in the fifth for a 3-0 lead. Reynolds has nine career homers against the Reds, his most against any opponent, and all of them have come at Great American Ball Park.

After lining out on a pair of low drives to Reds right fielder Aristides Aquino, Cal Mitchell put one out of reach by hitting a two-run homer 384 feet to right field for a 5-0 lead. It was the 50th homer hit by a Pirates rookie this season, extending a club record.

Meantime, Oviedo gave up two walks but didn’t allow a hit until Spencer Steer’s single to left in the fifth inning. Oviedo got Jose Barrero to go down swinging and Austin Romine to ground out to short. That was it for Oviedo, who was replaced by Zach Thompson in the sixth.

Friedl led off the sixth with a ground-rule double to right-center, then reached third on Jonathan India’s single to left. India ran into the tag of Rodolfo Castro while trying to stretch it to second, thanks to Jack Suwinski’s throw.

The Reds cut it to 5-1 when Friedl scored on Kyle Farmer’s groundout to third but could have added another run after Jake Fraley walked and Aquino singled to right. Instead, Thompson got Senzel to line out to Castro at second to end the inning.

The Reds got a scare instead of a score in the eighth. Shelton pulled Thompson after he gave up a two-out single to Farmer, only for lefty Manny Banuelos to hit Fraley in the head with his third pitch, a 94-mph fastball. Fraley left the game and was replaced by pinch runner Stuart Fairchild, only for Banuelos to get Aquino to pop out to short to strand both runners and end the inning.

Hayes hit a two-out double in the ninth and scored on Ben Gamel’s double to right-center to stretch the lead to 6-1.

“Hitting is contagious, as they say, and that holds very true,” Mitchell said. “When guys are feeling good, we’re bouncing ideas off each other and it starts to go up. … It only takes a few guys to really get us going. We’ve had a couple of those games, and lots of us have followed suit. It helps us win games.”