Nestor Cortes did not pitch well in the 9–4 loss to the Angels on Thursday
In Thursday evening’s series finale in less than ideal conditions while rain was coming down in The Bronx Nestor Cortes struggled in the Yankees 9–4 loss to the Los Angeles Angels.
Cortes allowed six earned runs with nine hits and a walk in 4.2 innings. He threw just 64 of his 95 pitches for strikes and he threw a fist pitch strike to 14 of his 22 batters. Nestor Cortes has allowed 24 earned runs in 23.1 innings in his last five starts. His ERA was 3.41 before this subpar five start stretch on July 5 but it is now all the way up to 4.42 after the game on August 8.
Cortes had a solid and productive 3.41 ERA in his first 19 starts going into his start on July 11. In his last five starts, he has a 9.26 ERA, 36 hits in 23.1 innings, 24 runs allowed, 18 strikeouts and nine walks allowed.
It was surprising that this bad performance came at Yankee Stadium since he had been much better at home than on the road this season. His ERA is now up to 3.05 in 12 starts at Yankees Stadium, after allowing those six runs, which is very good, but on the road in his 12 starts his ERA is 6.08 with a .301 opponent batting average.
He pitched very well in May with a 2.48 ERA in five starts with just three homers allowed and 30 strikeouts in 29 innings in May. He has not been as good since then. He had a 3.97 ERA in June after allowing six homers in the six starts and had a 6.93 ERA in July after allowing six homers and nine walks in the five starts during that month. The Yankees need him to be better at keeping hitters off balance and they need him to be more pinpoint with his pitches. Nolan Schanuel led off the game with a homer for the Angels.
The Angels took command of the game in the fifth inning when they scored six runs to increase their lead from 2–1 to 8–1. Four of those runs in the fifth inning were charged to Cortes and two of the runs in the fifth inning were charged to Enyel De Los Santos.
“I thought Nestor threw the ball okay,” manager Aaron Boone said. “He was not giving up a ton of hard contact. He had a hard time putting guys away tonight. They were spoiling pitches. He would get to two strikes and could not finish guys off. They did a good job of putting the ball in play. They did not sting the ball a ton against him.
Kevin Pillar hit a two run single to right to make the score 4–1 in the fifth inning. It should have been caught by Juan Soto or it should have been a single but the ball went under his glove on his slide. If Soto would have caught the ball that would have been the third out and the inning would have ended with the score still 2–1. It it was a single and the ball did not get past him then it’s possible only one run scores.
De Los Santos allowed a bases clearing double to number six hitter Jo Adell in the 5th inning to make the score 7–1.
“Once I hit it, I saw him freeze for a good period of time and I knew it was a chance it was going to fall in front of him,” Adell said. “So I was going to be aggressive with it.”
Mickey Moniak, who went 2–4 in this game, then had RBI single to make the score 8–1 and he was thrown out at second but a lot of damage had been done in that inning.
The number one and number two hitters in the lineup, Schanuel and Zach Neto, combined to go 6–9 (they each had three hits) with three RBI and a homer in this game. Schanuel had his solo homer. Neto dominated in this series since the shortstop went 8–13 in the three games with three runs scored, two doubles, two homers and nine RBI. He raised his OPS from .759 to .793 in the 3-game series. He had his first career grand slam in this series in his 195th game in he had only had nine RBI in his previous 16 games after having nine in this 3-game series.
The Angels won a series in the Bronx for the first time since 2017 and had consecutive games with six-run innings for the first time since Sept. 27–28, 2016.
Gleyber Torres hit a ball to the warning track in the 8th inning that was very close to being 3-run homer. That was at least his second ball hit to warning track of the series.
Moniak made an outstanding leaping catch to rob Soto of a home run. Soto was 1–4 in this game and in this 3-game series he went 2–13 with one walk. In six games in August, he is 6–25 (.240) with one homer and two RBI. He is in a rare slump and will likely start hitting better soon since Soto has fewer slumps than most players and his slumps do not last as long either. Soto still has the second best OBP in the AL, the third best WAR, the fifth best average (.305), the second best OPS (1.015) and the fifth most homers (28) in the American League.
In the second inning, Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a 418 foot homer to right center for his first homer at Yankee Stadium with the Yankees to tie the score at one. This was a positive for him after going 1–8 with six strikeouts in the first two games of the series against the Angels. Chisholm Jr. had four homers in his first five games with the team to get his tenure with the Yankees started as good as it possibly could.
The Yankees went 2–5 with runners in scoring position, which is a good average with RISP, but five runners in scoring position is a small amount for one game.
Soto had an RBI single in the eighth inning to finally get the Yankees another run. Later in the eighth inning, Giancarlo Stanton had an RBI single to center to score Alex Verdugo to make the score 9–3. Stanton has struggled overall since coming off the injured list since in his seven games back in the lineup he has a .192 average (5–26) with just one walk. In his 17 at-bats in August his OBP is just .176.
Ben Joyce, who has a 2.10 ERA in 22 games in his rookie season with the Angels, pitched the ninth inning and he averages 101.9 MPH on his 4 seamer, which is one MPH faster than Mason Miller’s 4 seamer. Miller has the second fastest 4 seamer behind Joyce.
Oswaldo Cabrera, who is from Venezuela, hit an impressive solo homer off of Joyce in the 9th on a 101.7 MPH pitch the other way. That snapped Joyce’s 22.2 inning scoreless streak, which covered a span of 18 consecutive games without allowing a run in his rookie season. Joyce threw 102 mph pitch to Chisholm in the ninth. He has the fastest pitch ever thrown in college baseball, which he did when the played at Tennessee. In his only season at Tennessee, he had a 2.23 ERA in 27 games (one start) with an impressive 53 strikeouts in 32.1 innings.
Cabrera now has eight homers and 34 RBI in 85 games this season after having just five homers and 29 RBI in his 115 games played last season. He has a .664 OPS after having a .574 OPS last season. His homer came in his only at-bat after having to pinch hit for Anthony Volpe. Cabrera has a .281 average (9–32) in his last 10 games after having a .181 average in his previous 11 games. He has a .243 average overall in his 85 games.
Cabrera came into the game for Volpe since Volpe left the game in the eighth inning with left foot pain after fouling the ball off of his foot. He fouled the ball off his foot in the second inning but exited the game in the eighth inning. The x-rays were negative and they are treating it as a contusion. It will help Volpe that Friday (tonight’s) game is postponed but it still seems like he might get at least one game on Saturday if not both games off to help him get back to 100 percent.
Aaron Judge went 0–4 with two strikeouts in this game. In his previous 10 games, he had a very impressive .514 average with a .660 OBP. That means that he got on base in two thirds of his at-bats in his previous 10 games. In those 10 games, he had five homers, 12 RBI and 15 walks. He is on track to win his second American League MVP in the last three seasons.
The Yankees have lost 18 of their last 27 game at home after going 21–8 in their first 29 games at Yankee Stadium this season. The Yankees will play their second double header of the week on Saturday since there has been a lot of rain in The Bronx this week.
The Yankees hit three or four baseballs that would have been a homer on a clear day that was not rainy like Thursday was.
