Cortes allows no hits until the 8th

Nestor Cortes may be the least-heralded top starting pitcher in the major leagues.

The New York Yankees left-hander 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-yearold 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.

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.

Meanwhile, a day after calling Yankee Stadium a “Little League ballpark” following Gleyber Torres’ game-winning home run over the right field short porch, Rangers manager Chris Woodward said he regretted his postgame remarks.

“Probably bad words on my part,” he said Monday. “I gave it a layup for a lot of people. But listen, I meant no disrespect, obviously, to this place.”

Orioles 6, Royals 1: Tyler Wells pitched six strong innings to earn his first victory of the season and host Baltimore used a six-run fifth inning to surge past Kansas City.

Baltimore has won four of five for the first time this season and finished its homestand 6-4. Kansas City fell to a season-high eight games under .500.

The game was a makeup of Saturday’s postponed game to cap a rainaltered series. Friday’s game was washed out and made up as part of a doubleheader the teams split Sunday.

Wells (1-2) allowed

Ryan O’Hearn’s two-out RBI single in the first, but cruised through the rest of his start. He retired 16 of the last 19 batters he faced and struck out three in the longest outing of his career. The 27-year-old righthander underwent Tommy John surgery in 2019 and missed all of the 2019 and 2020 seasons, then pitched out of the bullpen as a Rule 5 pick in 2021.