By james art LOS ANGELES — Nestor Cortez was so happy to reach the World Series that he was willing to sacrifice his elbow and possibly millions of dollars.
He finished by blowing a 10th inning lead for the New York Yankees in Game 1.
“It was right there, at our fingertips,” Cortes complained.
Freddie Freeman hit the first grand slam in Series history, a two-out shot against Cortez that lifted the Dodgers to a 6-3 victory Friday night.
“Coming in here, I wasn’t feeling 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 for about a dozen minutes, answering questions about his two-pitch outing, his first since a 37-day layoff.
Cortez has been out since Sept. 18 with a flexor strain in his pitching elbow. He missed the AL Division Series and the League Championship Series, but healed enough to be added to the active roster seven hours before the game. He felt more nervous watching the earlier rounds of the postseason than he did going into the World Series.
“You don’t have control over what happens in the game, and at that point I had control over what I was doing,” he said.
A 2022 All-Star eligible for free agency after the 2025 season, Cortez was willing to risk a long-term injury for the chance to step onto baseball’s biggest stage.
“If I have a ring and then a year off from baseball, so be it,” he said Tuesday.
New York took a 3-2 lead on Anthony Volpe’s RBI in the 10th, and Cortez warmed up in the bullpen alongside fellow lefty Tim Hill.
Jake Cousins walked Gavin Lux with one out in the bottom half, and Tommy Edman singled under the glove of second baseman Osvaldo Cabrera, bringing in Shohei Ohtani.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone signaled to Cortez by raising his arm — if he extended his arm low, it would have signaled the side-arming Hill.
“The adrenaline rush is amazing,” Cortes said.
He started Ohtani with a 92.4 mph fastball up the middle and in. The likely NL MVP sliced an opposite-field foul ball down the left-field line that Alex Verdugo caught in motion just before it hit the low retaining wall and flipped upside down into the stands, allowing runners to advance as it turned into a dead a ball.
Yankees relief pitcher Nestor Cortes, right, watches as Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman, left, hits a grand slam home run during the 10th inning in Game 1 of the World Series.
AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill
Mookie Betts was intentionally walked, bringing up Freeman.
“I’m just taking the game left to left there,” Boone said.
Cortes knew he had another great victory.
“I know everybody’s focusing on Ohtani, Ohtani, Ohtani, and we’re pulling it out. But Freeman is also a really good hitter,” Cortez said.
He threw a 92.5-mph fastball that Freeman blasted 409 feet into the right-field pavilion, a no-doubt slam that sent the crowd of 52,394 jumping to the point where the stadium shook. Cortez had aimed the pitch 2 or 3 inches higher.
“I thought he got to the inside of the plate where I wanted him to, but he didn’t get it up enough,” he said. “It looked good in the hand, but it just wasn’t high enough.”
Cortez turned, craned his neck slightly as he bent over and walked toward first base, shaking his head in disbelief.
“If I make my pitch there, obviously the result is different,” he said. “I didn’t stay on the field long enough to think about it or see him run the bases. I just went in and turned the page right there and then started my workout. I’m ready again for tomorrow.’
Several family and friends had tried to convince him not to return this year, to prioritize his elbow.
“That’s what the dream is all about. You grow up playing baseball, watching baseball and living for October, and here we are now,” Cortez said. “Obviously a lot of people heard me and gave me some advice – I wouldn’t say not to, but they gave me some advice, the pros and cons of what the situation could be. But at the end of the day, it’s my career, my decision, and I thought it was the best for me.”
He recalled the last homer he allowed, to Rochester’s Luis Garcia Jr., while pitching for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on May 20, 2021.
“You don’t forget them,” Cortes said.
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