Following two great wins, the New York Yankees were hoping to make it three in a row on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in the Bronx. Sending Nestor Cortes out there against Zach Eflin, the Yankees would hope to try and secure a series win this afternoon. They certainly got the performance they were looking for from Nestor Cortes, who was masterful this afternoon and has begun to come alive after a couple of rocky starts to open his season. It was a pitcher’s duel, with Eflin carving through the Yankees’ offense with precision after getting out of a first-inning jam unscathed.
The offense is what caused the Yankees to fall short in their hopes of grabbing a win today, as the Rays shut the Yankees out across the course of 10 innings in this 2-0 loss.
Nestor Cortes Fires A Gem, Yankees Offense Falls Flat
When you get seven scoreless frames from your starter, you hope that it results in a win, but that was not the case for the Yankees this afternoon. Instead of a nice cozy win, the Yankees suffered a pretty ugly loss here at home when they had a premium opportunity to grab a series win. Even with the ghost runner at second in extra innings, the Yankees were unable to bring home a single run, being blanked for 10 innings on a sunny afternoon in New York.
Something that stood out was their lack of power on the afternoon, not really putting a charge into anything hit while failing to capitalize in the rare moments where they had reached base. Focusing on the positives here, Nestor Cortes was very good for the Yankees, showing signs that he could have a serious impact on this rotation after a down year in 2023 where we saw his home run rate spike and his strikeout rate dip a little.
On the season, he has a 3.41 ERA and 3.24 FIP, an encouraging start as he’s commanded in-zone better and begun generating more swings and misses. The pitching staff has been missing the strikeout element in recent games, but today Nestor Cortes fired one of the more impressive starts we’ve seen from anyone in the rotation.
Luke Weaver and Clay Holmes would add a combined three strikeouts across two scoreless innings, but Caleb Ferguson took the loss in the game, as he served up hits to Jose Caballero and Ben Rortvedt in the top of the 10th. They were the only two runs scored in the game, as the Yankees went out quietly in the ninth. They will try to salvage the final game of this series and grab a series win as Aaron Civale goes up against Luis Gil tomorrow afternoon at 1:35 PM.