Evening star., 1939-03-19
Pitches 3Hit|ess
Innings, Gains
Winning Run
Gets Triple to Open
Big League Career
In 4-3 Victory
By sta1 Correspondent of The Star.


B, STAFF Correspondent of The Star.
ORLANDO, March 18.-Even If
Roberto Ortiz never reaches Wash
ington and the major leagues this
year shere is a spring training camp
picture tho Mats always will remem-
ber, a gaudy unbelievable tabloid of
a 4-to-3 victory over the Detroit
Tigers.
The Tigers held a 3-to-2 lead over
the Mats today going into the
seventh inning of Washington's first
Grapefruit League game. There is
stir in the stands and a curious
crowd of 2,385, filling the little tinker
field grandstand, leans forward.
Ortiz, the Cuban with the fast ball,
is going to pitch.
He walks out to the box with a
bewildered stare. He has never
pitched in a ball game where there
were nine men on each side. The
only real game in which he ever
played was in Cuba. He played
center field for an amateur team
that time. He is looking at two big
league teams in action for the first
time. In fact, he is a part of the
game.
Hits Triple Against Wind.
He winds up awkwardly and he
gets out the first batter on a groun-
der to Charley Colbert. He walks
man, but he gets the next two. It
is Washington's turn at bat. He,
Roberto Ortiz, nom English speak
ing boy from the cane fields of
central Cuba, is first at bat.
The Tiger pitcher is Harry Eisen-
stat, once of the Dodgers. Eisenstat
laughs. He pitches and Ortiz swings.
A tremendous drive bites into the
teeth OF a baby gale blowing in the
face of the hitter 1t sails over the
head of the left fielder and into the
bushes. 1t is 3-base drive,
longest hit of the day. Without the
wind 1t would have cleared the
bushes and plunked precariously
close to Lake Lorna Doone.
He waits on third while George
Case is thrown out and Ossie Bluege
Is walked. Then Bobby Estalella
comes up and Ortiz shrieks in Span
ish a few words of encouragement
And Estalella hits a long fly that
scores his fellow-countryman and
the score is 3-3.
Ortiz faces the Tigers in the
eighth. He walks the first man.
He balks him to second, and then
he strikes out Pete Fox and gets
Rogel and Catcher Dixie Parsons.
Score: 3-3.
Issues Only Blanks.
The ninth rolls around. He gets
the first hitter and then he fields
tap by Shortstop Frank Croucher
and throws it widely. He tries to
catch Croucher off first base and
Rookie Jimmy Vernon, returning
the ball, throws it away and
Croucher is on second. But then
Ortiz gets Dixie Walker and Charley
Gehringer and ends the inning. In
his major league debut he pitches
three runless, hitless innings.
The Mats ninth rolls around.
Again Ortiz is first up. Again he
hits. 1t is a high bounder. He
beats 1t out. He staggers on the
bases like a drunken sailor but is
pushed to third by Cases sacrifice
and walks to Bluege and Estalella.
A dozen times he is almost picked
off. And then Johnny Welaj pounds
a hard single to left and Ortiz
scores to win the game, the first
professional game in which he
plays.
1t is hard to believe but that's
what happened this afternoon.
Roberto Ortiz. who didn't cost the
Washington ball club a plugged
nickel, almost single licked
the Detroit Tigers and, in the pro-
cess, outpitched and out-played
Freddy Hutchinson, the rookie for
whom Detroit gave $50,0O0 in cash
and five ball players.
Ortiz almost single -handedly won
the game, but he wasn't the whole
show Alexandra Carrasquel, the
elderly looking Venezuelan, won the
first leg on his spurs and so did
Welaj, who banged out two hits
in two times at bat, including that
which broke up the game, and who
roamed the outfield f1awlessly.
Carrasquel, Joe Haynes and Ortiz
gave the Tigers only three hits.
Hutchinson Hit Freely.
1t was Carrasquel-or AL Alex
ander, as they call him-versus
Hutchinson at the start. Alex work.
ed three innings. He gave up a
hit and no runs. Against Hutchin-
son the Mats made seven hits in
five innings and took a 20 lead
in the fourth, when Buddy Myer,
Cecil Travis and Jimmy Wasdell
singled with one down. When
Croucher booted roller by Haynes,
who relieved Alexander, the Sec
ond run was brought over by Travis.
Wildness by Haynes and two
costly errors by Buddy Lewis gave
Detroit all of its runs in the fifth
inning and set the stage for Ortiz's
entrance. Haynes, normally steady
pitcher, walked Birdie Tebbetts. He
got Hutchinson, but Lewis booted
Croucher's ball and Haynes walked
Dixie Walker and Charley Geh-
ringer. Then Lewis booted a
grounder by Hank Greenberg and
the score was 80.
And that's the way it stood until
the fateful seventh, when the Mats
took the blanket of Ortiz, the
Cuban MerriWell. F. E. S.