Nestor Cortes nearly had Yankees fans re-living worst nightmare during Padres-Dodgers

It's been a bad time for New York Yankees fans ever since late May. Overall, those bad vibes stretch back to 2018. But the worst moment in between was their unceremonious elimination at the hands of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2024 World Series.

That showdown was doomed when Aaron Boone removed Gerrit Cole from Game 1 when his ace was cruising before running into minimal trouble. Then it completely imploded when Boone called upon Nestor Cortes in extra innings when the left-hander hadn't pitched in over a month due to a forearm injury. He was asked to face the heart of the Dodgers order with runners on base.

He got Shohei Ohtani to pop out (thanks to what was a great catch by Alex Verdugo) and then intentionally walked Mookie Betts to face Freddie Freeman with two outs. The logic was sound. There were already two runners in scoring position, and you'd rather the lefty-lefty matchup.

Everything else? Not sound. In fact, very unsound. Cortes being the call there was egregious since the Yankees had lefty Tim Hill (who had been very good) available. They had the lead! They just needed to shut the door.

Cortes, who was obviously not sharp due to the long layoff, threw two pitches before the game ended. The Ohtani pop out was one, and the absolute inner-half meatball he served up to Freeman for the walk-off grand slam was the other. The Yankees lost the series in five games and never had a chance. Their chance was to win Game 1, and they blew it so badly that a Game 2 win felt like an insurmountable longshot.

Now, Cortes is in the NL West after the Milwaukee Brewers traded him to the San Diego Padres at the deadline. On Saturday, he faced the Dodgers in what was a hotly contested division battle. And what do you know? Cortes dominated. He tossed six scoreless innings in the 5-1 win.

But he nearly made the same exact mistake against Freeman, who flew out nearly 400 feet to center field. It was the same pitch that ended any hope for the Yankees last season.

Yankees fans experienced PTSD when Nestor Cortes pitched to Freddie Freeman in Dodgers-Padres series

Everybody remembers the Yankees' failures. It's clockwork. Every social media account/troll takes notes and just cannot wait to deploy whatever it is that will get under Yankees fans' skin or trigger them beyond belief.

Hell, Cortes not giving up a home run and positively shutting down the Dodgers prompted this type of behavior! Until the Yankees can turn the tides and stick it to one formidable opponent on the big stage, nothing will change.

Props to Nestor, though, who learned nothing from his egregious World Series mistake but somehow got away with it in a different uniform.