The New York Yankees didn’t welcome Nestor Cortes back to the Bronx very kindly.
Making his Milwaukee Brewers debut at Yankee Stadium after an offseason trade, the former All-Star gave up back-to-back-to-back home runs to Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge – on three pitches – to start the first inning on Saturday.
After finally getting two outs in the frame, Cortes surrendered his fourth home run of the inning to catcher Austin Wells. Cortes walked two more batters after Wells’ home run, but he struck out Trent Grisham to mercifully bring the disastrous inning to an end.
The Yankees sent Cortes to Milwaukee in the deal that brought closer Devin Williams to New York. The lefty finished eighth in Cy Young voting in 2022 with a 12-4 record and 2.44 ERA in 28 starts. Injuries limited Cortes to 12 outings in 2023 and while he was the Yankees’ Opening Day starter in 2024, injuries sidelined the lefty to begin the Yankees’ run to the World Series last season.
Cortes made two appearances in the Fall Classic against the Los Angeles Dodgers, famously surrendering Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam in Game 1, the first in World Series history.
Goldschmidt and Bellinger’s home runs were their first for the Yankees, both former MVPs acquired over the winter after the Yankees missed out on bringing back Juan Soto. Goldschmidt was batting leadoff for the first time in his MLB career on Saturday.
The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.
