Brewers' Opening Day starter struggles, but Joey Ortiz’s "emergency" steals spotlight

As the Milwaukee Brewers wrap up spring training, they took the field against the Arizona Diamondbacks this past Friday in a game that featured a plethora of runs. The final score was a not-so-pretty 16-9 loss, with Freddy Peralta taking the majority of the damage. The Brewers’ Opening Day starter was shelled for 10 earned runs, a performance he’d probably like to flush from his memory. Unfortunately, the only thing going down the drain faster than Peralta’s ERA was his infield defense — at least momentarily.

In the middle of the fourth inning, during an at-bat against Diamondbacks infielder Ketel Marte, the cameras caught newly assigned shortstop Joey Ortiz suddenly sprinting off the field, causing a stoppage in play. While there’s no clear evidence linking Ortiz’s exit to Peralta’s performance, it sure looked like Milwaukee’s ace wasn’t the only Brewer dealing with an emergency.

Pat Murphy keeps it real about Ortiz's quick exit

When asked about the situation after the game, Brewers manager Pat Murphy didn’t beat around the bush. Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel caught up with Murphy, who "made no stink" about Ortiz’s abrupt departure. In fact, he put it as plainly as possible:

“He had to poop.”

Truly, words of wisdom.

Perhaps if Peralta had been dealing, Ortiz would have had enough downtime in the dugout to handle his business while the Brewers were at bat. However, when you gotta go, you gotta go, and in this case, Ortiz had to go. The nice part of spring training is that the rules are flexible, meaning Ortiz technically could’ve re-entered the game if truly necessary. However, had this been a regular-season game, it would’ve been a much bigger mess — because, as we all know, once you're subbed out in a real game, you can't just wonder back in after a quick trip to the can.

All in all, this serves as an important learning experience for Ortiz, who may want to reconsider his pregame meal choices as the regular season approaches. After all, there’s no room for bathroom breaks in baseball. No one wants to see a repeat performance where a player gets caught off guard when there are higher-stakes. And for Peralta, he’ll be hoping his next start is cleaner than the bottom of Ortiz’s cleats after his quick retreat to clubhouse lavatory.

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