TICKETED FOR GREATNESS

Ramon Ortiz, who won his major league pitching debut with the Angels on Thursday, had 10 pesos in hand and decided to take a chance. He had spent another long day pulling weeds in a Dominican Republic rice field and was on his way home when he stopped to buy a lottery ticket.

He won 280 pesos, quite an amount for a 7-year-old who had already spent a year working in the fields to help his family survive.

“I felt like a millionaire,” Ortiz, now 23, said through an interpreter. “We were in desperate need of money. I gave it all to my mommy so she could buy food and clothes.”

It doesn’t seem so long ago to Ortiz.

He worked long hours in the fields, then chased after his eight older brothers, trying to play baseball just as they did.

Ortiz shared the dream of almost every young boy in the Dominican Republic, to be a major league baseball player. Very few make it. None of his brothers did. Now Ortiz is here.

He rocketed--like his 95-mph fastball--through the Angel minor league system. He has been compared to Boston’s Pedro Martinez, which he doesn’t discourage, and has survived tougher tests than those that fall between the foul lines.

With the Angels’ plummet from the American League West Division race, Ortiz’s promotion was only a matter of time. He arrived Thursday and gave up only four hits in eight innings against the Chicago White Sox in a 9-2 victory.

It has been a long journey in a short time. To understand how important baseball is to him, one need only know his mother, Cleotilde, told Ortiz to quit his job when he was 16 so he could concentrate on pitching.

“My mommy used to give me money so I could play,” Ortiz said. “We didn’t have a lot of money. Whenever I played, wherever I played, my papi [father] was always there. I would pray to God to help me become a baseball player.

“My mommy keeps telling me that I will be a big league pitcher. It is one of the things that has kept me going, my mommy’s faith.”

Faith, for Ortiz, was necessary.

In 1997, he went 11-10 at Class-A Cedar Rapids, which included a no-hitter against Quad City. He struck out 225 batters, the most by a minor league pitcher since 1986.

But he was limited to seven games last season because of a stress fracture in his right elbow. He didn’t need surgery, but the Angels weren’t sure what condition Ortiz would be in when he returned from the Dominican Republic this spring.

Ortiz started 0-4 at double-A Erie, which Angel officials blame on extensive dental work Ortiz had during spring training. He then won nine straight games and had a 2.82 earned-run average before being promoted to triple-A Edmonton.

“I credit God’s intervention for me being able to pitch again,” Ortiz said.

The Angels were cautious. They haven’t developed a quality starting pitcher since Kirk McCaskill, who was a rookie in 1985, and were not about to rush Ortiz.

“We wanted to go slow with Ramon,” said Jeff Parker, the Angels’ director of player development. “We consider him a No. 1 starter in the future. “

The future, and Ortiz, couldn’t wait. He didn’t dominate triple-A, going 5-3 with 4.05 ERA, but he demonstrated big-league poise. And there were flashes of what they hope will become standard.

In his second start, he set a team record with 13 strikeouts . . . in 6 2/3 innings.

“Ramon began to understand he was going to pitch in the major leagues,” Parker said.

Ortiz’s slight frame--he is 6 feet, 165 pounds--and velocity brought the Martinez comparisons almost immediately. It was too easy.

Both are from the Dominican Republic. Both have mid-90-mph fastballs and wicked sliders. Martinez, in fact, taught Ortiz the slider when they were teammates with the Licey Los Tigres, a Dominican League winter team, in 1996.

“Ramon has that kind of arm,” said Bob Fontaine, the Angels’ director of player personnel. “But I think it’s unfair to compare him to Pedro. Ramon is his own person. He is going to do great things.”

Ortiz doesn’t mind the talk.

“Pedro is my idol,” Ortiz said. “It makes me feel good when people compare me to him. Instead of putting pressure on me, it helps me become a better pitcher. I want to be better than Pedro in the future.”

Ortiz grew up in a family where there was rarely enough for 13 children. Rarely enough food, clothes, money.

His mother sewed. His father, Alfonso Ortiz, drove a tow truck. Ramon Ortiz went to work in the fields. His education stopped after his freshman year in high school.

There was baseball or there was a hard life.

Ortiz, who is from Cotui, did his best to emulate his brothers. He started as the bat boy for their local team, then became a second baseman before turning to pitching at 13.

“I would get off work and run through the neighborhood,” he said. “That’s how I trained. I was a very skinny kid and the neighbors would always yell, ‘Why are you doing this, you’re not going to amount to anything.’ My mommy would never let me get discouraged. I knew I had to work hard.”

Teams began to take notice when Ortiz was 17. The baseball community in the Dominican Republic is tight, and Ortiz was a fan of former Angel Luis Polonia--”I consider him like another brother,” Ortiz said.

Ortiz signed with the Angels in 1995. He pitched for the Angels’ Dominican Summer League team, going 8-6 with a 2.23 ERA and 100 strikeouts in 97 innings.

A time that doesn’t seem so long ago.

“My mommy’s happiest and proudest moment was when I signed my first professional contract,” Ortiz said.

“I still owe my mommy a lot. I always promised that I would take care of her as soon as I made it to the major leagues.”