From roster uncertainty to a cornerstone of the lineup, Joey Ortiz has provided the spark the Milwaukee Brewers need for a deep October run.
The Milwaukee Brewers have gotten tons of production out of unexpected players this season.
Robert Gasser has stepped up in a huge way on the mound, but it's been Jake Bauers who is guiding this team to victory at the plate.
Joey Ortiz is currently one of the most slept on players in all of baseball, and he's a guy who wasn't even sure if he'd be making the Opening Day roster.
Ortiz, 28, is hotter than he's ever been before. The infielder is riding a 10 game hitting streak which is good for a new career high.
In this span he's racked up 14 hits and is hitting .400. He has a homer, four RBIs, and eight runs scored in his last 10 games.
Ortiz continues to play at the highest level
Somehow, the California native has a batting average of .270 through Saturday, Sept. 19.
Ortiz is slashing .270/.329/.407 with a .736 OPS. He's not going to give the team a ton of home runs or be the biggest power bat in the lineup, but getting on base is the name of the game and he's done just that.
Ortiz used the sun to his advantage on Sept. 19 as he tripled to right field and ended up being the only runner to score in the entire game.
That Brewers 1-0 win proved just how important he is to this team, and it further proved that his hitting streak is no joke.
As part of a new career high where he's now recorded at least one hit in each of his last 10 games, Ortiz has a three and four hit game in this sample size.
Here in the month of September, there's only been one game where Ortiz failed to record a hit. He went 0-for-2 with a pair of strikeouts on Sept. 5, but other than that, he's been as good as it gets.
Ortiz has a sky-high .373 batting average in the month, and his .976 OPS is incredible knowing it was as low as .395 during the month of April.
For reference, Ortiz slashed .154/.241/.154 in the 52 at-bats he had during the first full month of the regular season. Here in the final full month, he's slashing .373/.407/.569 in a 51 at-bat sample size.
Milwaukee has one of the smaller payrolls in all of baseball, so if they want to make a deep run through October, it requires a player like Ortiz to be playing out of his mind, and he's doing that and then some.
