NICE NEST’ EGG
Cortes takes no-hitter into 8th, fans 11 as Yankees blank Rangers
Nestor Cortes had one question for Matt Blake this winter.
The Yankees 36th round draft pick, who doesn’t light up a radar gun with a high-90s fastball, spent the first five years of his professional baseball career just trying not to get released.
“He called and asked me if I thought he had an outside chance of making the team,” the Yankees pitching coach said. “I told him ‘I think you got a shot at making the team. We’ll see where it ends up.’”
Monday, Cortes proved himself more than worthy of that rotation spot again, striking out 11 and taking a no-hit bid into the eighth inning as the Yankees edged out the Rangers, 1-0, in the series finale at the Stadium.
The Yankees (20-8) have won 15 of their last 18 games and own the best record in the American League.
Cortes worked around four walks, but pitched 7.1 scoreless innings. The Yankees were also being shutout until Aaron Judge scored from first on Anthony Rizzo’s fly ball double to left-center field in the bottom of the eighth.
By then it was too late to get a win for Cortes, but he didn’t really care.
“I don’t think about (the offense). Not at all. My goal is always to keep my team in the game and go as far and as long as I can do it,” Cortes said. “And honestly I don’t concentrate on the other part, because I know it’s very hard. If they’re battling and we’re battling, we’ll come up with a positive outcome.”
There was enough for Cortes to take out of this game without the win, which went to Clay Holmes.
It was his third career double-digit strikeout game and second of the season. It was also his longest start in the big leagues and his fourth-career scoreless start. He has allowed two earned runs or less in each of his six starts this season and walked off the mound in the eighth inning with a 1.41 ERA and a standing ovation.
Aaron Boone was walking a tightrope. He was willing to let Cortes go, even as his pitch count soared, but also had to manage a scoreless tie to try and win the game and the series.
“It added to it. I was hanging on over there for dear life. It definitely added a layer of drama to it for sure,” Boone said of the Yankees being unable to give Cortes a cushion. “And obviously it makes every pitch even that much more meaningful and intense. Which makes it all the more impressive. There was no margin for error.”
Cortes didn’t need much. His cutter was on and he used it to set the tone with a nine-pitch first inning where he struck out the first two batters he faced.
“I felt like early on I was attacking the zone real well,” Cortes said. “I feel like you never know how long you can go without giving up a hit. After the fifth inning it felt like something kind of special was happening and I was just trying to maintain it.”
The cutter was his most effective pitch, getting 12 swings and misses with it. He had 17 whiffs total Monday.
With Holmes warming up behind him before the eighth inning even started, Cortes struck out Charlie Culberson on a 91 mile per hour fastball. Eli White connected on a 1-2 four-seam fastball and looped it into shallow center field to break up the no-hit bid. That also ended Cortes’ day after throwing 103 pitches.
In spring training, Cortes talked about coming to camp with the idea he had a spot on the team, but not sure if it would be out of the bullpen or in the rotation. His mentality through the minors was that if he gets outs, he gets another chance and even Sunday he said he still uses that as motivation when he goes out on the mound.
But the confidence is growing, despite needing a little reassurance last winter. He skipped pitching winter ball in Dominican Republic for the first time in his career to rest his body. He came into spring feeling like the Yankees would give him another shot.
Through their first 28 games so far this season, he’s been their best shot.
“I think he’s coming to terms with it, that he’s a major-league pitcher and he deserves to go out there and pitch every five days,” Blake said. “He gives us a chance to win and I think just knowing what his strengths are and he’s really good at just owning that and going after hitters and he’s not scared of the strike zone. And that gives him a chance every time.”