Luis Ortiz had been hit-or-miss in his first two starts for the Pittsburgh Pirates, so to change it up the 24-year-old rookie right-hander turned to the newest addition to his pitch repertoire against the hottest-hitting team in baseball.

Ortiz used a changeup to complement his fastball/slider combination against the Texas Rangers, adding another swing-and-miss element that allowed him to complete seven innings for the first time in his career.

As effective as Ortiz was, it took a controversial call at home plate and Tucupita Marcano’s grand slam in the seventh inning for the Pirates to beat the Rangers, 6-4, on Monday night before 10,574 at PNC Park.

Ortiz (1-2) earned his first career victory by holding the AL West-leading Rangers (29-18), who entered the game with an MLB-best .272 batting average, 287 RBIs and 6.5 runs per game, to one run in a career-best 7 2/3 innings. Ortiz allowed five hits — none for extra bases — and two walks while striking out four in throwing a career-high 93 pitches.

“You’re looking at the best offense in baseball there,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “He stayed in attack mode. It shows the quality of his stuff because they were really aggressive. Through the first 4-5 innings, there weren’t a lot of balls put on the barrel.”

Ortiz threw his four-seam fastball with conviction, kept the Rangers off-balance by mixing a heater that topped out at 98.5 mph with 16 changeups at 89.5 mph. Ortiz generated 45 swings, including 14 called strikes and 10 whiffs.

“It’s a reflection of hard work and working through the week in-between starts to make it better,” Ortiz said through interpreter Stephen Morales. “I just have to continue to work on it, and hopefully it’s like it was tonight every night.”

Impressive as Ortiz was, he could be headed back to the minors when right-hander Vince Velasquez returns to the rotation after being on the injured list since May 5 with right elbow inflammation. But his strong start was a boost for the Pirates, who were coming off back-to-back losses.

Marcano’s slam was the first of his career and the second of the season for the Pirates (25-22), who also got one from Jack Suwinski in a 16-1 win over the Washington Nationals on April 29. It marked Marcano’s second consecutive game with a momentum-changing hit, as he had a tying two-run double in the fifth inning of Sunday’s 8-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“Obviously, a unique moment for me and any player in the big leagues, and it came out at the right time,” Marcano said through Morales, crediting his pregame routines for his success at the plate. “It’s always good when you work on something, and it relates to the game. It’s a product of hard work, and I just go out there to do my best and not think that things are going to go wrong, just to have fun and do my best.”

The Pirates took a 2-1 lead in the seventh, when Bryan Reynolds hit a two-out single in the seventh and Suwinski drew a walk to set the stage for a controversial call.

Carlos Santana singled to right but Adolis Garcia threw home to catcher Jonah Heim, who swiped across the plate to tag a sliding Reynolds. Home plate umpire Nate Tomlinson called Reynolds out, but the Pirates challenged and it was overturned after a video review.

“I think the thing that gets lost there is the slide by Reynolds,” Shelton said. “A lot of guys slide and keep their foot up. He slid and kept his foot down. Then we’re able to get the challenge and do that. It was really encouraging that we continued to grind through at-bats regardless of the number of outs.”

Joe Barlow replaced Josh Sborz but walked Ke’Bryan Hayes to load the bases, and Marcano crushed a 2-2 slider 419 feet to straightaway center for his first career grand slam and a 6-1 lead.

“I felt from pitch one that I had a pretty good chance on that at-bat (grand slam) to connect the ball really good, and that’s what I did,” Marcano said. “I put some good swings before that pitch and I think that was the result of it. He hung a pitch somewhere over the plate, and I put a good swing on it.”

The Pirates got six hits but scored only one run off Rangers right-hander Dane Dunning, who entered with a 4-0 record and 1.69 ERA.

Andrew McCutchen’s leadoff single marked his 1,500th hit as a Pirate to become the 12th player in franchise history to reach the milestone. McCutchen, who needs 15 more hits to reach 2,000 for his career, also stretched his on-base streak to 12 consecutive games.

McCutchen raced to third on Suwinski’s single to right-center but with two outs and Hayes at bat, the Pirates attempted a double steal. Heim’s throw to Marcus Semien at second stopped Suwinski between the bases, and McCutchen was caught heading home and froze as Semien ran in to tag him for the final out.

Hayes doubled to left to start the second, then advanced to third on Marcano’s groundout to first and scored on Connor Joe’s slow roller to short to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead.

Ortiz took a comebacker off his leg but recovered to throw Semien out at first, then struck out Corey Seager with a nasty changeup. Ortiz executed with efficiency, throwing 10 pitches in the second, 11 in the third, 10 in the fourth and only four to complete the fifth.

“I think it just shows the quality of his stuff, it really does,” Shelton said. “Through seven, he was at, what, 67 pitches? You don’t see that very often. You definitely don’t see it against a team as good as they are.”

The Rangers tied the game 1-1 in the sixth when Leody Taveras hit a leadoff single, advanced to second on a wild pitch, tagged to third on Semien’s fly out deep to center and scored on Seager’s sacrifice fly down the left-field line.

The Pirates responded with a two-out rally in the bottom of the sixth, when Marcano drew a walk and Joe singled to left to put runners on first and second. The Rangers replaced Dunning with Sborz, who struck out Ji Hwan Bae on three consecutive curveballs.

After the Pirates took a 6-1 lead, Ortiz walked Robbie Grossman and Josh H. Smith to start the eighth. Taveras grounded into a forceout at second base but was ruled safe at first. Once again the Pirates challenged and had the call overturned, making it a double play. After Semien singled to score Grossman to cut it to 6-2, Colin Holderman replaced Ortiz, who received an ovation as he exited the game.

The Pirates made another attempt at a two-out rally in the eighth, when McCutchen singled and stole second base, then tried to score on a single to right by Reynolds but was thrown out by Garcia at home plate.

After Nathaniel Lowe’s leadoff single in the ninth, Josh Jung sent David Bednar’s 1-1 fastball into the bullpen for a two-run shot and his 10th home run to cut it to 6-4. Bednar got Heim to fly out to right and struck out Grossman to clinch the win.

The Pirates gave all the credit to Ortiz for shutting down the Rangers.

“I would take it against any team. It really doesn’t matter,” Shelton said. “But with where their hitters are at and what they’ve done and the amount of runs they score, yeah, it was extremely impressive.”

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)