Many firsts for Nestor Cortes this year

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NEW YORK — Nestor Cortes, the left-handed Yankees fan-favorite, has had a year of many firsts. He got his first spot on an All-Star team. He went over 100 innings for the first time, then 125, then 150, and ended the season with 158 1/3 innings that made him a star. On Friday, he also made his first start in the postseason. In a game that the Yankees lost, he held Cleveland to two runs over five innings.

With Monday’s rain washing away the original plan for Game 5, the Yankees were happy to give the ball to Cortes on Tuesday afternoon, after he had had three days off. It’s an amazing story for someone who was put on waiver by the Orioles in 2018 and had a terrible ERA of 6.66 in 2019 and 2020.

Even the worst baseball team at the time, the 2018 Orioles, didn’t want him. Four years later, Cortes has changed into a pitcher who can be counted on not only in a winner-take-all game but also for one of the most-watched teams in the sport at Yankee Stadium, which is like a pressure cooker. Since Game 5 was moved back about 20 hours, Aaron Boone, the manager, chose Cortes to go through the Guardians’ lineup at the start of the game. If the Yankees and Guardians had been able to play on Monday, Cortes might have come out of the bullpen at some point to try to carry the Yankees to victory in