The New York Yankees need Nestor Cortes to perform at his finest level this season as long as Gerrit Cole doesn’t return. It has been a concern since the spring training. Clearly, the team is at present playing without a dependable ace pitcher. Even when the AL 2023 Cy Young winner was healthy, the fans wanted the front office to sign someone like Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery to bring in a solid partner in baseball crime for Cole. However, the NY side had to find satisfaction with the addition of Marcus Stroman in the end. The former Chicago Cubs starter is pretty good. But clearly, he is not at the level of Snell or Cole.
Hence, without a solid partner, there was too much responsibility on the AL 2023 Cy Young winner as it always has been. But then the last thing the Yankees feared about was missing Cole for a couple of months owing to a right elbow injury. It was a big blow for the Bronx Bombers before the start of a promising season, losing their ace pitcher. Hence, in Cole’s absence, Nestor Cortes and Carlos Rodon will have to take a lot of responsibility. More or less, they have done a good job. Lately, Cortes caught the fan’s attention after executing a fake pitch.
Against The Guardians, Nestor Cortes Faked A Crafty Pitch
In the last game of the Guardians series, the Yankees were cruising to an easy victory when Cortes surrendered four runs in four innings. However, he did have a good start to the game. But due to defensive mistakes, the Yankees had to endure a narrow defeat in the extra inning. However, there were a couple of highlights for the Yankees in the previous game. Aaron Judge equaled Derek Jeter’s total home runs for the Pinstripes. Besides Judge’s 450-foot homer on Sunday, Nestor Cortes was another big highlight of that game. He faked a crafty throw in order to distract the slugger. Cortes is pretty famous for making such moves on the mound.
But his pitch to hitter Andres Gimenez caught the fans attention and became an unforgettable moment at the bottom of the second inning. Albeit, Cortes is quite well-known for such windups, it was perhaps too over the top for himself. The Yankees Nation feel Nestor Cortes took the game to a whole new level with his new move. But the lefty pitcher could not help his team from losing 8-7 on Sunday. All of Nestor’s good efforts early in the innings went in vain. Anyway, some fans found his fake pitch hilarious, and some said, “That shouldn’t be allowed.” Previously, Cortes caught the fan’s attention when he tried his move against Shohei Ohtani.
Yankees Starter Struggling To Find Consistency
Clearly, the fake pitch was the most memorable one for Cortes against the Guardians on Sunday. He posted a few strikeouts early in the game. But then the quality hurler faltered as he yielded homers and base hits. Nestor Cortes pitched four innings and got six opponents to strikeouts.
Then, he gave way four runs, 5 hits, and even a walk in a no-decision game. Cortes is just 29 years old. He struggled with his long ball. Jose Ramirez and Gabriel Arias hit him for homers. So far, the 29-year-old pitcher is finding it hard to maintain consistency as he has 1-1 record in 2024. He has a 4.50 ERA, and 1.14 WHIP after pitching 22 innings.
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