Cortes takes no-hitter into 8th
Unheralded left-hander has another stellar outing in Yankees’ win
Nestor Cortes may be the least-heralded top starting pitcher in the major leagues.
The New York Yankees lefthander was five outs from a no-hitter when he threw his 103rd pitch, and No. 9 hitter Eli White looped a single into short center field. The 27-year-old Cortes, a regular starter in the major leagues since only last July, rocked back twice slightly and grinned with disappointment and satisfaction.
“When the emotions and the adrenaline is rushing, everything feels great,” he said. “But now I feel like I got hit by a truck.”
Cortes, Clay Holmes and Aroldis Chapman combined on a two-hitter, Anthony Rizzo doubled in a run in the eighth and the Yankees beat the Texas Rangers 1-0 on Monday for their sixth straight series win.
Cortes is 1-1 with a 1.41 ERA, among the top five in the major leagues and a big reason New York is an Al-best 20-8. He has 42 strikeouts and 11 walks in 32 innings, holding hitters to a .177 average.
A 36th-round draft pick by the Yankees in 2013, Cortes was taken by Baltimore in the 2017 winter meeting draft, made his debut at the start of the following season and was returned to the Yankees that April. He spent the rest of the year in the minors, shuttled back and forth in 2019, then was dealt to Seattle. He was released after a 15.26 ERA in five games with the Mariners in 2020 and re-signed by the Yankees.
“The three years, ’18, ’19 and ’20 were pretty rough on me,” Cortes said. “I’ve been playing baseball since I was 4. I feel like
that’s the only thing I know how to do. I came out of high school; I don’t have anything to fall back on, so I was going to ride this as long I could.”
Cortes focused on fastballs and cutters, improved his conditioning, boosted his average fastball velocity by 2 mph and joined the Yankees’ rotation at midseason.
“The game’s littered with people that weren’t always the high pick or the top prospect,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “He’s persevered. He’s experienced everything. He’s had to fight for everything.”
At 90.4 mph, Cortes’ fastball velocity ranks just 134th among 158 pitchers who had thrown 250 or more pitches entering the week.
“It seems to jump on guys, regardless of the velocity,” said Yankees teammate Gerrit Cole, fourth in the majors at 97.6 mph.
Boone cautioned: “Don’t get enamored with the number. There’s guys throwing 96, 97 that are getting hit, that it’s not a good fastball.“
Making his 22nd big league start and sixth this season, Cortes pitched a big league careerhigh 71⁄3 innings, walked four and struck out 11, one shy of his high.
Boone was going to let Cortes go for a no-hitter as long as he didn’t get past 105-110 pitches, even after Cortes walked a pair of batters in the seventh. White fouled off a pair of 1-2 pitches, then singled to center.