Ortiz continues power surge as Rox have 'no answer' for Priester in 11-K gem

MILWAUKEE -- Another team might have moved on from a shortstop like Joey Ortiz when he was sitting on a sub-.500 OPS in the second week of June.

Other teams did move on from right-hander Quinn Priester, who is just 24 years old but arrived in Milwaukee labeled a failed first-round Draft pick.

Both are thriving lately in what manager Pat Murphy calls baseball’s land of opportunity, with Ortiz continuing a power surge by hitting a two-run homer to back Priester’s career start in a 5-0 win over the Rockies on Saturday afternoon at American Family Field. The duo helped push the Brewers (47-36) to a season-high 11 games over .500 with the team’s eighth victory in nine games, and 22nd victory in its past 30 contests.

Priester set career highs for innings (seven) and strikeouts (11) while delivering the Brewers’ first double-digit strikeout performance since Frankie Montas last September, and combining with Aaron Ashby and DL Hall on a one-hit shutout. The lone Rockies hit was Michael Toglia’s single grounded through the right side of the infield with one out in the fifth.

It didn’t escape Priester that he’s allowed the lone base hit in both of Milwaukee’s one-hitters this season. The other was on April 15 against the Tigers in his second Brewers start, which was also the first time it looked like they had something in a pitcher who owned a 6.23 ERA in 99 2/3 Major League innings for the Pirates and Red Sox, and was pitching for Boston’s Triple-A team when starting pitching-starved Milwaukee acquired him in an April 7 trade.

In 15 games with the Brewers, he has a 3.35 ERA and the team has won seven of his past eight outings.

“I’ve said this 100 times and I’ll say it again: [GM] Matt Arnold and our front office predicted that this was the guy,” Murphy said.

Murphy remembered Priester from Pittsburgh, where he was the 18th overall pick in the 2019 MLB Draft. But the skipper watched Priester’s Brewers debut against the Rockies in Denver on April 10 with fresh eyes, and let’s just say he saw room for improvement.

“I’m like, ‘Ugh, this is a project,’” Murphy said.

And now?

“I credit the kid more than anyone, but our pitching staff -- our pitching coaches and the players on the staff -- have embraced this guy and allowed him to grow,” Murphy said. “Now you see his confidence.”

Priester became the first Brewers pitcher to log double-digit strikeouts this season by generating 20 whiffs on 44 Rockies swings, including 16 whiffs on 23 swings against his slider and curveball.

“He spun us to death beneath the zone,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said. “He just had our number all day. We had no answer for him."

And Priester pitched with a lead throughout, after the Brewers scored twice in the first inning and built the lead to 4-0 by the fourth, when Ortiz homered for the third time in his last four games.

For both players, it was a matter of persistence.

“Earlier in my career, it was really hard to believe that because the results didn’t change,” Priester said. “You saw the stuff was there, but now, really seeing the results -- which is obviously the most important -- being consistent, it’s very easy to trust the process that we’ve developed over the past two months.”

Ortiz, too, praised the power of process. He had two homers in his 77 games this season before homering three times in the last four games, and Brewers officials were beginning to ponder other options at shortstop.

“Nobody’s going to be playing great all year, and if you are, you’re going to be the MVP or something,” Ortiz said. “I feel like a lot of guys can attest to going through the ups and downs in a season. You’re just trying to grind your way through it, do what you can, smile your way through it because it’s a blessing to go out and play every day. That’s something you try and remember.”

What’s the secret to staying positive?

“I feel like my teammates have kept my head up a lot more than they know this season,” Ortiz said. “I feel like I’m a happy, joyful individual. I try to smile and do what I can every day, and I know the process is more important than the results at times. You just have to grind through it.”

That blessing isn’t to be taken for granted, as any player with Minor League options will tell you. In fact, Murphy revealed on Saturday that there were times he had his doubts about how to best develop Priester.

“My decision would have been to let him go to Triple-A and work this stuff out,” Murphy said. “He’s done it here at the big league level.

“He’s got a ways to go, [but] the way things are trending right now, you watch that performance today and I don’t care who it’s against, he attacked the zone and it was a great performance.”