World Series 2024: Nestor Cortes Jr., Yankees bullpen fails to pitch final three outs in Game 1 loss to Dodgers

LOS ANGELES — As Yankees reliever Jake Cousins ​​walked to the mound in the bottom of the 10th inning, he had a simple but delicate task in front of him: retire the team in order against the bottom-third of the Dodgers lineup — Shohei Ohtani, relievers Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman watching — and the World Series. Game 1 will belong to New York.

If one of Will Smith, Gavin Lux or Tommy Edman had reached base, the entire complexion of the ballgame would have changed. With Ohtani looking forward to the leadoff spot, Cousins ​​will be pulled when the soon-to-be NL MVP comes to the plate. Who would step out of New York's bullpen to face Ohtani in that situation? It's a question manager Aaron Boone certainly doesn't want to answer.

Six days earlier, Cousins ​​was brilliant in Game 5 of the ALCS, striking out four of the five batters he faced as the Yankees won the American League pennant in the later stages of a tied game. Cousins ​​is one of several Yankees reliever reclamation projects who have gradually earned Boone's trust in high-leverage spots, and with Clay Holmes, Tommy Kahnle and Luke Weaver already committed to the rules, it was Cousins ​​— with only one career save to his name — Who got the ball with a chance to close out Game 1.

With three more outs, the Yankees would claim a narrow road win in a game that featured six brilliant innings of one-run ball by Gerrit Cole and another spectacular blast from October superhero Giancarlo Stanton that gave New York the lead back. Sixth innings. Jazz Chisholm Jr., coming off an eerily quiet ALCS, restored the lead for the Yankees by scoring a run in the top of the 10th with a leadoff single and some aggressive baserunning. With Cole and Stanton out, it wasn't the smoothest ride for New York going into the bottom of the 10th with a lead — repeated failures with runners in scoring position and a defensive miscue by Gleyber Torres lingering as the game wore on — but with only three outs left, all was lost. will go

Smith flied out to right for a harmless first out, but Lux followed with a five-pitch walk. As effective as Cousins ​​has been as a Yankee, he's prone to losing the zone with relative frequency, especially against left-handed batters, and that wildness resurfaced at a cruelly inopportune time. Suddenly, an Ohtani plate appearance was imminent, with Edman grounding into a double play. But when Edman hit a hard grounder up the middle that second baseman Oswaldo Cabrera was unable to hang on in time to record an out, a much bigger threat than Ohtani emerged for New York. With just one out, Bates and Freeman grabbed their bats and prepared to strike out in case Ohtani couldn't get through.

But first, that dreaded question the Yankees love to ignore: Who will face Ohtani?

Boone had two lefties warming up to choose from: Nestor Cortes Jr. and Tim Hill. Hill, a journeyman like Cousins, has found a home in the Yankees bullpen as a side-winding southpaw who has consistently flummoxed opposing batters with his unique arm angle and performed well in seven appearances this October. Cortes represents a much more familiar face — a former All-Star who has become the head of New York's pitching staff in recent years — but much more of an unknown at this point. He hasn't pitched since Sept. 18 after suffering an elbow flexor strain but has been rehabbing over the past month and building himself up enough that New York deemed him worthy of adding to the World Series roster, especially as a potential counter to Bevy's dangerous lefty bats in the L.A. lineup.

And with those two lefty sluggers in Ohtani and Freeman slated to hit the game on the line, Boone felt confident Cortes was the right call.

“Just loved the matchup,” he said after his team's 6-3 loss. “The reality is he's thrown the ball really well the last couple of weeks because he's gotten ready for it. I knew with one out there, Tim Hill would have a hard time doubling Shohei if he got him on the ground, and then he's a tough matchup there behind Mookie so in that spot. Convicted with Nestor.”

And so, for Cortes trotted out what was not only the highest-leverage assignment of his major-league career but also a situation as dire as a reliever: a trio of MVPs with two more outs.

As Cortes warmed up, the volume at Dodger Stadium reached a new high for the evening, as the announced crowd of 52,394 eagerly awaited the prospect of an Ohtani World Series walk-off. But the anticipation of such a moment was suddenly derailed when Ohtani sliced ​​Cortes' first pitch down the left-field line, only to see Alex Verdugo make an outstanding grab in foul territory, crash over the wall and into the stands for a grueling second. out

With Verdugo out of the game, runners were allowed to advance to second and third. That left first base open, and so Boone singled out Bates to set up a left-on-left matchup for Cortes vs. Freeman, even though the bases were loaded and Chavez Ravin was absolutely ready to explode.

Expected Ohtani and/or Bates moments may fall flat, but that's why the Dodgers keep earning MVPs. Now it's Freeman's turn.

Once again, Cortes' first pitch — a fastball that catcher Austin Wells wanted up and inside but that leaked low into Freeman's nitro zone — was swung with ill intent. And this time, there was no chance of being caught by anyone but the throngs of ecstatic Dodgers fans who packed the right-field pavilion. About seven minutes after Cortes entered in hopes of sealing the Yankees Game 1 victory, Freeman hit the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history. Life comes to you quickly in October.

A Yankees bullpen that didn't allow an earned run over 15 2/3 innings in the ALDS against the Royals began to show cracks against the Guardians in the ALCS but still managed to record the biggest outs in the biggest moments en route to the series. Winning in just five matches. The Dodgers, however, represent an entirely different animal to tame New York's bullpen. And in a series opener in Los Angeles in which Boone was in position to deploy a seemingly completely rested relief corps — and an apparent reinforcement in Cortes — in fairly favorable order, the Yankees failed to record enough outs to secure the win.

It's the second time this month that the Yankees are on the losing side of an absolute October Classic. Their only loss in the ALCS against Cleveland came in particular, if similarly impressive, fashion in Game 3, a contest in which New York also grabbed a late lead only to squander it by surrendering a walk-off home run. But as brutal as the moment was, it was relatively easy — and logical — for New York to maintain confidence after that heartbreaking loss in Cleveland. The Yankees still felt firmly in control of the series and were able to quickly flush the result and that was verified over the next two days when they closed out the series.

That kind of luxury doesn't exist as things stand in Los Angeles, as the Yankees are now down a series for the first time this October. If you haven't phrased it correctly, dropping Game 1 in Los Angeles would be a perfectly reasonable outcome for the Yankees to accept early in the series. But the sequence of events and poor performance that led to New York's dramatic loss on Friday was a stark reminder of just how tough its World Series opponent is — and how well the Yankees must play and pitch if they are to keep pace. with Los Angeles.