Cortes’ comeback pays off against A’s

NEW YORK — It wasn’t the biggest signing this winter. In fact, Nestor Cortes Jr. had to announce it himself on Instagram last winter that he was rejoining the Yankees on a minor league contract. So far, however, it’s a significant one. The left-handed reliever came in and saved the Yankees Saturday after Domingo German melted down in the fifth inning.

Cortes was summoned with runners on the corners and no outs in the Yankees’ 7-5 win over the A’s. He got the Yankees out of the inning and went on to give them three scoreless and was the bridge to Chad Green and Aroldis Chapman.

“Huge, he just got the [game champion] belt in there for good reason,” Aaron Boone said. “He kept us in the game and gave us a chance to get back in it. There were a lot of really good at-bats in the second half of that game to kind of crawl back into it. So Nestor was terrific obviously getting out of the jam and the fifth to limit the damage you know, for first and third no outs to get out of that.

“Then get you know, at some point in the outing, another big pitch to get out of another jam,” the Yankees manager continued. “He was really, really on today. And we needed him.”

Cortes has filled that role since being recalled late last month. In four appearances, he has allowed two earned runs over 12.1 innings pitched.

A volt of Voit: Luke Voit may look like he’s ready to be back in the big league lineup after Friday night’s power burst, but the Yankees first baseman is just on track. The plan is for him to return for the start of the series against the Royals on Tuesday.

Voit went 3-for-4 with a home run and double and three RBI for Class-A Somerset. In four games, Voit was hitting .357/.400/.714 with two doubles, a home run and four RBI.

Severino starts slowly: Luis Severino was on the field Saturday morning playing catch and doing some agility drills. The right-hander had his rehab from Tommy John surgery shutdown when he suffered a strained left groin in a minor league rehab start a week ago. The Yankees said it would be about a month setback to his return from the March 2020 surgery.