It was a tough return to the Bronx for Nestor Cortes.
Now of the Milwaukee Brewers, the left-hander surrendered 5 house runs in Saturday’s 20-9 loss to the Yankees, together with solo pictures on every of his first three pitches.
“He didn’t execute,” Brewers supervisor Pat Murphy stated. “He didn’t throw the ball good. He’d be the first to tell you.”
Cortes, nonetheless, left Yankee Stadium with out addressing the media, based on a Brewers spokesman.
He allowed eight runs in two-plus innings in his first begin for the reason that Yankees traded him to Milwaukee in December in a bundle for nearer Devin Williams.
Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger and Aaron Decide went back-to-back-to-back to start the sport, and Austin Wells added one other solo blast for the Yankees’ fourth house run of the primary inning.
Anthony Volpe then struck a three-run homer within the second inning in opposition to Cortes, who issued 5 walks and allowed six hits in opposition to two strikeouts.
“We know Nestor,” stated Decide, who went 4-for-6 with three homers and eight RBI.
“Nestor’s been here for years. He’s one of the best lefty pitchers in the game. He’s a guy that’s gonna go out there and throw strikes, attack you, so we just tried to go out there and be aggressive in our zone.”
Added Goldschmidt, who’s in his first yr with the Yankees, “I got a chance to face him last year, coming here with St Louis, and there was a lot of familiarity with the guys that played with him. … There was a lot of familiarity, I’ll put it that way.”
The Yankees drafted Cortes, 30, in 2013, nevertheless it wasn’t till his third stint with the group that he caught.
He pitched to a 3.33 ERA over 93 video games, together with 84 begins, with the Yankees from 2021-24 and earned an All-Star choice in 2022.
“We’re in competition out there, and it’s [all about] the game once that happens, but I want him to have a great year, and there’s no reason he won’t go and have a great year,” Yankees supervisor Aaron Boone stated.
“I know how competitive he is. You’re gonna take your lumps in this game if you play long enough. It’s just one game. He’ll be alright.”
The Yankees traded Cortes after their offseason signing of Max Fried created a surplus of beginning pitching.
“Once we landed and bussed into the city, it brought back some good memories,” Cortes stated Thursday throughout his first of two scrums with reporters that day.
“I miss it a little, but everything’s good.”
Murphy suspected Cortes feeling amped as much as face his previous group might have added to his struggles, however he didn’t suppose the Yankees had a inform on their former pitcher.
“The only tell they had was the ball wasn’t cutting,” Murphy stated, “and he didn’t throw the ball where he wanted to [or] on the side of the plate he wanted to.”
