American baseball player
Baseball player
Filomeno Coronado Ortega
(born October 7, 1939) is an American former
professional baseball
pitcher
who appeared in 204
games
in
Major League Baseball
for the
Los Angeles Dodgers
,
Washington Senators
and
California Angels
over all or parts of ten seasons (1960?1969). A
right-hander
, he stood 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) tall and weighed 170 pounds (77 kg).
Career
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]
Ortega was born in
Gilbert, Arizona
and graduated from
Mesa High School
in 1959.
[1]
Signed by the Dodgers in 1959 to a $75,000 bonus, the 18-year-old Ortega was immediately assigned to
Triple-A
Spokane
, where he got into 22 games, 16 as a
starting pitcher
. He spent part of 1960 with Spokane, the bulk of the year with
Class B
Green Bay
, and was called to the Dodgers in September for his first taste of MLB action. He had another late-season audition in
1961
, then made the Dodger roster in
1962
, appearing in 24 games with three starts for a contending team. Ortega was sent to Triple-A for one game in 1962, but in
1963
, Ortega spent a full
Pacific Coast League
season with Spokane, and appeared in only one game with the Dodgers.
In
1964
he logged a full season in the majors, working in 34 games for Los Angeles and making 25 starts. He won seven of 16
decisions
but showed promise with four
complete games
and three
shutouts
, including a
three-hitter
against the contending
Cincinnati Reds
on August 23. But the Dodgers slumped to the
second division
and, in search of pitching help, included Ortega in a blockbuster December 4, 1964, seven-player trade with the Washington Senators which saw Los Angeles obtain veteran left-hander
Claude Osteen
for slugger
Frank Howard
.
Managed
by former Dodger teammate
Gil Hodges
, Ortega took a regular turn in the Senators' rotation, with 94 starting appearances over his first three seasons, including the
1965 "Presidential Opener"
. His best campaign came in
1967
, when he set career highs in games started (34),
innings pitched
(219
2
⁄
3
),
strikeouts
(122) and
earned run average
(3.03). But his performance declined in
1968
with only five wins in 17 decisions and a poor 4.98 earned run average, and Ortega's contract was sold to the California Angels just prior to the
1969
season. The Angels used him in five games in
relief
during the campaign's early weeks, then sent him to the minors, where he pitched for the rest of his pro career, retiring in 1972.
During his ten-year MLB career, Ortega compiled 46
wins
(against 62 defeats), 20 complete games, nine shutouts, 549
strikeouts
, and a 4.43
earned run average
. In 951
2
⁄
3
innings pitched, he permitted 884 hits and 378
bases on balls
.
References
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External links
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