Embracing new role, Ortiz erases club's RISP woes with go-ahead HR

MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers needed a big hit with a runner in scoring position, and one of their unlikeliest heroes delivered.

Joey Ortiz, the defensive wizard who has slumped so badly at the plate for parts of the past three seasons that he lost hold of starting shortstop duties earlier this month, hit a two-out, two-run home run in the eighth inning on Monday to beat the Reds, 5-3, at American Family Field and provide an example of what can happen when you keep swinging.

“To see Joey come through like that, man, that was amazing,” said Brewers closer Trevor Megill, who made Ortiz’s home run stand up by breezing through the ninth. “He forgot to acknowledge the bullpen, but we’ll let that slide.”

You’ll have to forgive Ortiz for not saluting toward the outfield as he rounded second base, because he hasn’t had many opportunities to make that trot in recent years. He stepped to the plate against just-summoned Reds reliever Tejay Antone with a .196 batting average and one home run for the season after an 0-for-3 start to his night that included two empty at-bats with runners in scoring position. That has been a big problem of late for the Brewers, who were 1-for-8 in the game, 6-for-36 on the homestand and 7-for-65 with runners in scoring position over parts of the past eight games since their eight-run second inning in Atlanta on June 21 as Ortiz dug into the batter’s box.

It had become such an issue that manager Pat Murphy attended the pre-series hitters meeting on Monday to deliver a message -- not to order hitters to get clutch hits. That’s not how it works at this level. But rather to encourage them to return to the disciplined process that made the Brewers such a tough out over the past few years.

“I wasn’t real nice,” Murphy said. “We talked about, ‘Don’t worry about the result. Play with an edge every game.’”

One might think that’s been difficult for Ortiz lately. He was the Brewers’ shortstop of the future when the Brewers sent ace right-hander Corbin Burnes to the Orioles for Ortiz and lefty DL Hall on the eve of 2024 Spring Training, and two months into that season, Ortiz was flirting with a .900 OPS.

But since the start of June 2024, he’s hitting .220 with a .603 OPS, eighth-lowest mark of the 302 players who have at least 500 at-bats over that two-year stretch. In April, when Cooper Pratt signed an eight-year contract, it was clear to Ortiz that someone else was the Brewers’ shortstop of the future.

“I’m still blessed to be in the big leagues,” Ortiz said. “Whether I’m playing short every day or playing third and then moving to short when they need me, a lot of people in this world would kill to be in my position. I’m happy to be here.

“I had an idea what was going to happen once he signed the extension. He’s such a great player. He’s very much deserving of the money and the position. He’s going to be a great Brewer for a long time, I can already tell. My job is to just take care of what the team needs.”

The Brewers had a feeling that Ortiz would take his demotion professionally, or they wouldn’t have stationed Pratt’s locker directly between Ortiz and Platinum Glove Award-winning second baseman Brice Turang.

Ortiz never hung his head.

“I’ve seen the opposite,” Murphy said. “I’ve seen a great attitude. I’ve seen having fun again. I’ve seen a kid that’s accepted his role and looking forward to being a good Major League baseball player for a while.”

Jake Bauers had already delivered one clutch hit with a run-scoring single as the Brewers fought back from a 3-0 deficit going into the bottom of the sixth inning to make it a 3-3 tie on Turang’s solo homer in the seventh. In the eighth, Sal Frelick knocked a one-out single and David Hamilton bunted him over for Ortiz, who took a first-pitch sweeper from Antone for a called strike, then checked his swing on another sweeper that fell off the plate.

In a 1-1 count, Ortiz saw yet another sweeper. It started so far inside that it looked like it might hit him, and ended center-cut at the bottom of the strike zone. Ortiz connected and started screaming at the baseball.

“I was telling it to get out, to be honest,” he said. “I didn’t know I got it.”

When Ortiz’s go-ahead homer sailed over the center-field fence -- his first hit with a runner in scoring position since June 1 -- and Megill secured the final three outs for his 11th save, it made a winner of Brewers reliever Aaron Ashby, who is 11-1 and remains the Major League leader in wins, even though they all have come in relief.

“He’s been a gamer the whole time he’s been here,” Megill said. “Coming through in the clutch like that is just badass. It was the time to step up and do it, and he did.”

Ortiz gets a mulligan for forgetting the bullpen salute.

“He was caught up in some emotion,” Megill said, “and I don’t blame him.”