MILWAUKEE -- Joey Ortiz was batting below his weight as recently as June 10, when the 185-pound Brewers shortstop went into a game against the Braves with a .183/.257/.248 slash line and a chance, manager Pat Murphy joked a time or two with gallows humor, to break the Major League record for popouts to first base.
But Ortiz was playing solid defense, and besides, the Brewers weren’t brimming with other options. Their preferred shortstop at one late date in Spring Training, Brice Turang, developed a sore throwing shoulder and stayed at second base. The consensus was to keep him there. Their most advanced shortstop prospect, Cooper Pratt (Brewers’ No. 3 prospect, MLB Pipeline’s overall No. 44), was at Double-A Biloxi. Milwaukee stayed patient with Ortiz. And now that patience is paying some dividends.
The 26-year-old Ortiz delivered the first multihomer game of his career in Tuesday night’s 9-3 win over the Pirates at American Family Field, continuing a recent surge for the Brewers, who have won five of their last six games while scoring at least eight runs in all of the victories. It also continued a strong stretch for Ortiz, who doubled his home run count for the season from two to four, drove in four runs and is hitting .292 over his last 30 games, including .424 during his eight-game hitting streak.
Ortiz’s second homer of the game followed a three-run blast -- with a bat flip to match the moment -- from rookie Caleb Durbin, another young player whose early-May swoon (he had a 5-for-54 stretch at one low point) had the club looking at other options for third base.
Now, Durbin is hitting .294 over his last 29 games.
Is it a case of budding hitters being buoyed by confidence?
“I hope so,” Murphy said on Tuesday afternoon. “You never really know what helps and what doesn’t. Some guys need a hug and some guys need a kick in the [rear end]. But if they know you’re coming from a place of love and you really do care about them, and you really do want them to do well, I think that helps.
“I think they feel that. And in today’s transactional world, I think that’s a little more transformational when they know you’re in it for them. That you see their struggle, feel their struggle, and they almost feel like you’re in it with them. Hopefully, that helps.”
The production from the bottom of the order has helped the Brewers go 19-8 since May 25, matching the Astros for the best mark in the Majors over that span.
“We never really feel like we’re out of a game right now,” Durbin said. “It’s a lot of fun to play when you feel like that.”
“I think you can tell that we feel good,” Ortiz said.
Ortiz passed the credit to Brewers coaches and teammates for helping him navigate his early-season slump, with regular reminders that a 162-game schedule affords plenty of opportunities to flip the script.
As for separating a slump from his important job at shortstop, Ortiz said, “Of course it’s hard. We’re all human. We all want to do well in any job that we do. Luckily, I kind of have two jobs playing defense and offense, so struggling at one can lead to the other. I try to do my best to focus and understand that I can still help the team win on defense.”
Lately, Ortiz has been doing both. Last year, after the Brewers acquired Ortiz with left-hander DL Hall from the Orioles in the Corbin Burnes trade, Ortiz did enough of both while manning third base to be worth 2.7 wins above replacement by the Baseball-Reference measure. He went into Tuesday night at -0.8 bWAR, a stark measure of how different this year has been until lately.
“It doesn’t matter if he’s struggling or not,” said Brewers starter Freddy Peralta, “he’s the same kid every time. That’s something I love about him.”
The same goes for Durbin, who celebrated his three-run homer in the game-breaking fourth inning with the most pronounced bat flip of his young career.
“I think I was just excited to put three runs on the board there,” he said.
“That was pretty nice. He pimped it pretty good,” Ortiz said.
They both had plenty to celebrate.
“I think everyone grinds through it at some point, and we were at a certain spot going through it at the same time,” Durbin said. “You just feed off each others’ energy, especially on a big night like [Ortiz had]. He’s been great the last couple of weeks.”