Brewers' Nestor Cortes still seems to be coping about Yankees' World Series loss

The New York Yankees didn't lose the 2024 World Series because of Nestor Cortes. They lost because of Aaron Boone's terrible decision making, overall bad defense, and Aaron Judge fully disappearing. And they still only lost by a combined run in the Dodgers' five-game triumph.

Cortes, however, played a role in crushing the Yankees' chances. In Game 1, Boone called upon his veteran lefty with runners on first and second in the bottom of the 10th inning. Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman were coming to the plate with the Dodgers trailing by a run.

Here's the disclaimer, though: Cortes hadn't pitched in over a month due to a flexor strain in his left forearm, and the Yankees had veteran lefty Tim Hill, who was dominating throughout the postseason, available and ready to go against that trio of sluggers.

Though Cortes got Ohtani to foul out, the Yankees intentionally walked Betts to load the bases. One pitch later, Freeman hit a grand slam to walk off the Yankees, lifting the Dodgers to an insurmountable momentum-shifting Game 1 victory. Cortes served up a 93 MPH fastball right in Freeman's hot zone. Unfortunately for Cortes, he was objectively put in a poor spot by his manager. Then again, he couldn't have executed worse.

Then came the offseason, and Cortes was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers in the deal that netted New York closer Devin Williams. The Yankees were clearly ready to move on, no longer viewing him as an indispensable asset. Cortes valued being a Yankee very much, so his departure was a tough one for the former fan favorite. As for his legacy, it seems he's attempting to conduct some sort of damage control with how everything went down in the World Series.

“Nobody remembers my second outing,” Cortes said told The Athletic this week. “But I dominated my second outing. Dominated Ohtani, struck him out. Dominated Freeman. Obviously, it didn’t matter at that moment, but I came back and did what I had to do, which was my job: get people out.”

That second outing for Cortes? He got five outs when the Yankees were trailing 3-0 in what ended up being a 4-2 loss. Dominated Ohtani, who had a dislocated shoulder suffered in Game 2. Freeman reached based on a fielding error. Nobody remembers this showing because it didn't matter and it wasn't special at all.

Referring to his Game 1 outing, Cortes doubled down in regard to why he was the better option over Hill.

“With what Tim Hill did, his stuff during the postseason was incredible and he was definitely a huge help. But I’ve been with Aaron Boone for five years. I know he trusted me enough, and I guarantee you Aaron Boone would give me the ball every single time in that situation.”

Sounds like an Aaron Boone problem to us! There's nothing wrong with calling on a healthy Cortes to get some important outs against lefties late in a game, but the universally-criticized decision was well-deserved. Cortes' last outing at that point in time was Sept. 18. He was called upon to face three of the best hitters in the sport to CLOSE OUT the first game of the Fall Classic on the road on October 25.

Sorry, Nestor. It was objectively the wrong call given the circumstance. Yankees fans understand where you're coming from, but it's easy to see why this was an unpopular decision that completely upended what could've been a special 2024 season. Cortes is a confident pitcher and it's a respectable trait, but his sense of self has perhaps gone too far here.