Nestor Cortes played in his first spring game for the Yankees on Saturday, when they lost to the Blue Jays 5-2. Cortes was hit hard by the Blue Jays at TD Ballpark. He had been limited to live batting practice while recovering from a right hamstring strain for most of the exhibition season. But the left-handed pitcher was happy to leave the Yankees’ 5-2 loss feeling strong, which will help him improve over the next two weeks.
“Not a nasty start,” Nestor Cortes said after the game, referring to his nickname. But considering the hamstring injury and groin problem that forced him out of the playoffs early last October, Nestor Cortes was happy with his command and thought his stuff was better than he expected in his first game of 2023.
“With my first outing, as long as I get out of there healthy and feeling good about myself, that was the most important thing for me,” Nestor Cortes said. “It was a nasty start, but after going out with the groin last year and not able to pitch in a real game until today and then dealing with the hamstring all spring, I thought it was pretty well.”
“During live BPs and bullpens, I tried to be too perfect, and then today I thought it was going to be the same and I was spotting the ball pretty well.”
Nestor Cortes was a little behind this spring because of a problem with his hamstring, but his bullpens and live batting practices went well. But when he went back to the mound, Toronto’s lineup was similar to what it was on Opening Day. This made it so Nestor Cortes gave up five earned runs and two home runs in 3.1 innings. Cortes also had three walks and four strikeouts.
The Yankees southpaw also used the pitch timer for the first time in a game. He had practiced with it before at Steinbrenner Field and said he felt “comfortable” with it. Recently, the Yankees pitchers talked about the timer in the clubhouse, and Cortes’s jerky hesitations came up.
Nestor Cortes didn’t do as much of what has become his trademark trickery on Saturday. Over the last few years, this has made him popular with fans and maddened batters. That had nothing to do with the new rules in Major League Baseball, like the pitch clock. The 2022 Cy Young winner assured of his ability to throw “weird” pitches, such as hesitation moves and weird windups, and he plans to use his bag of tricks the next time out.
“As soon as I start my windup, the clock should stop, and I should be able to do what I want,” Cortes said. “I’m pretty sure I’ll test that out in the next start, do some of the weird stuff, see if that’s OK.”
Nestor Cortes is upbeat
The 28-year-old has fully recovered from the hamstring strain he got in early February. Manager Aaron Boone says Nestor Cortes could start the season as the Yankees’ fourth starter. Cortes is about a week behind the other hurlers when it comes to getting ready and having the stamina to play.
His easy third inning, which went 1-2-3, was impressive. He struck out George Springer and then got rid of Bo Bichette and Guerrero by getting them to hit weak ground balls. It was also good that Nestor Cortes had to throw 52 pitches. He still has two more starts in Florida before he makes his first regular-season start, which is likely to be on April 3 at Yankee Stadium against the Phillies in the Yankees’ fourth game of the season.
“I would say 60-65 (pitches) next time, then 75-80 after that,” Cortes said. “Hopefully my first start will be 85-90 .”
Most importantly, Nestor Cortes did not have any problems with his right hamstring, which is why the 2022 All-Star has been behind this spring.
“All in all, I thought it was a pretty good day,” manager Boone said. “He finished up pretty well, I liked the life on his fastball, and we got his workload to where we wanted. I think his stuff looks good.”
Nestor Cortes was able to see how he did against most of the Blue Jays starting lineup on Saturday. The lineup looked a lot like the one he will face during the regular season. Boone said he would have liked a weaker opponent, but “we needed to get him out there.”
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