Willing to sacrifice elbow to pitch in World Series, Cortes gives up game-winning grand slam

AP Baseball Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nestor Cortes was so happy to reach the World Series, he was willing to sacrifice his elbow and perhaps millions of dollars.

He wound up blowing a 10th-inning lead for the New York Yankees in Game 1.

“It was right there on our fingertips,” Cortes lamented.

Freddie Freeman hit the first walk-off grand slam in Series history, a two-out drive off Cortes that lifted the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 6-3 victory on Friday night.

“Walking in here, I didn’t feel sorry for myself at all. I felt more like, letting my team down,” Cortes said.

Nicknamed Nasty Nestor and the Hialeah Kid, the 29-year-old left-hander stood at his locker stall for about a dozen minutes answering questions about his two-pitch outing, his first after a 37-day layoff.

Cortes had been sidelined since Sept. 18 because of a flexor strain in his pitching elbow. He missed the AL Division Series and League Championship Series but healed enough to be added to the active roster seven hours before gametime. He had felt more nervous watching the earlier rounds of the postseason than pitching in the World Series.

“You have no control over what’s happening in the game, and at that moment I had control of what I was doing,” he said.

A 2022 All-Star eligible for free agency after the 2025 season, Cortes was willing to risk a long-term injury for the chance to pitch on baseball’s grandest stage.

“If I have a ring and then a year off of baseball, then so be it,” he said Tuesday.

New York took a 3-2 lead on Anthony Volpe’s RBI grounder in the 10th, and Cortes warmed up in the bullpen alongside fellow left-hander Tim Hill.

Jake Cousins walked Gavin Lux with one out in the bottom half and Tommy Edman singled under the glove of diving second baseman Oswaldo Cabrera, bringing up Shohei Ohtani.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone signaled for Cortes by raising his arm — if he put his hand out low, it would have been a cue for the side-arming Hill.

“The adrenaline rush is amazing,” Cortes said.

He started Ohtani with a 92.4 mph fastball, upper middle and in. The likely NL MVP sliced an opposite-field foul down the left-field line that Alex Verdugo snagged on the run just before he hit the low retaining wall and tumbled head over heels into the stands, allowing the runners to move up because it became a dead ball.

Mookie Betts was intentionally walked, bringing up Freeman.

“Just taking the left-on-left matchup there,” Boone said.

Cortes knew there was still one big out to get.

“I know everybody’s focused on Ohtani, Ohtani, Ohtani, and we get him out. But Freeman is also a really good hitter,” Cortes said.

He threw a 92.5 mph fastball that Freeman launched 409 feet into the right-field pavilion, a no-doubt drive that sent the crowd of 52,394 jumping to the point the stadium shook. Cortes had aimed the pitch 2 or 3 inches higher.

“I thought it got to the inside part of the plate where I wanted to, but didn’t get it just up enough,” he said. “Right off the hand it looked OK, but just didn’t get it high enough.”

Cortes turned, craned his neck slightly as he leaned and started walking to the first base dugout, shaking his head in disbelief.

“If I make my pitch there, obviously it’s a different result,” he said. “Didn’t stay on the field just long enough to think about it or see him run the bases. Just walked in and kind of turned the page right there and then got my workout in. Ready for tomorrow again.”

Some family and friends had tried to persuade him not to come back this year, to prioritize his elbow.

“This is what the dream is made of. You grow up playing baseball, watching baseball and living for October and we’re here now,” Cortes said. “A bunch of people obviously got in my ear and gave me some advice — I wouldn’t say not do it but gave me some advice, the pros and cons of what the situation could have been. But at the end of the day it’s my career, my decision, and I thought that this is the best for me.”

He remembered back to the last walk-off homer he allowed, to Rochester’s Luis García Jr. while pitching for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on May 20, 2021.

“You don’t forget those,” Cortes said.

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