Luis Ortiz Gambling Investigation Sparked by Two Individual Pitches

Money placed on first pitch bets from starts on June 15 and June 27 raised eyebrows.

Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Luis Ortiz is on paid leave as MLB investigates gambling allegations against him. / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

Luis Ortiz is currently on paid leave as Major League Baseball investigates gambling allegations against the Cleveland Guardians pitcher. It turns out the investigation was prompted by two individual pitches.

According to ESPN's Jeff Passan and David Purdum, betting integrity firm IC360 sent an alert to sportsbook operators about Ortiz in June.

From Passan's report:

The alert, according to sources who reviewed it, referenced action on Ortiz's first pitches in select innings to be a ball or a hit batsman in two games: June 15 against the Seattle Mariners and June 27 against the St. Louis Cardinals. In both the bottom of the second inning against the Mariners and the top of the third inning against the Cardinals, Ortiz threw a first-pitch slider that was well outside the strike zone.

Bets in Ohio, New York and New Jersey were flagged in the alert. Some sportsbooks allow betting on the result of first piches in a given inning.

Jomboy Media found video of the two pitches, both miss the strike zone by a mile.

MLB's investigation into Luis Ortiz is about these two individual pitches which received action flagged by a betting-integrity firm, per @JeffPassan pic.twitter.com/2zvZhmrTlJ

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) July 3, 2025

Ortiz is currently on "non-disciplinary paid leave" through July 17 while MLB investigates the allegations.

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