Pittsburgh Pirates Sweep Doubleheader in Cincinnati

Young starting pitchers impress

Johan Oviedo started the first game of the doubleheader. Oviedo turned in his best major league outing since being traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates and one of the best starts of his major league career.

Oviedo led the Pirates to victory in game one by pitching 5 scoreless innings. He allowed just one hit, walked two batters and struck out four. This was a terrific bounce back outing by Oviedo after he lasted just 1.2 innings against the New York Mets in his last outing. Oviedo continues to show very intriguing stuff and will continue to make starts for the Pittsburgh Pirates this month.

Game two saw 23-year-old righty Luis Ortiz starts for the Pirates. To say that Ortiz impressed would be a huge understatement. Ortiz pitched 5.2 scoreless innings and needed just 83 pitches to do so.

Ortiz threw 67.5% of his pitches for strikes and was aggressive throughout his start. He did not allow very many base runners, but when Red batters did reach base against Ortiz he continued to attack the strike zone.

The hard-throwing righty allowed just one hit, he walked three and struck out five. Ortiz generated 11 swings-and-missed. Throughout his start he lit up the radar gun. His fastball sat in the high-90s and he threw six pitches that eclipses 100 MPH, marking the second most pitches of 100+ MPH thrown by a Pirate pitcher in the StatCast Era.

Even though Ortiz was promoted as the team’s 29th man for the doubleheader, it will be difficult to not give him another start in the majors after the way he impressed on Tuesday. A fastball that averages 99 MPH, a plus slider and a 90+ MPH changeup will certainly play in the majors.