Yankees starter Nestor Cortes was removed from Game 4 of the ALCS after two-plus innings of work due to what the team described as a left groin injury. Cortes allowed only a single and a walk in his first two frames, but walked his first two batters of the third inning and then allowed a three-run homer to Astros shortstop Jeremy Pena. Cortes was replaced by Wandy Peralta after the Pena home run.
Manager Aaron Boone and a team trainer briefly visited Cortes on the mound after the initial walk, but elected to leave the southpaw in the game. Later, during an in-game interview with TBS reporter Lauren Shehadi, Boone said that Cortes had been dealing with a groin problem throughout the postseason. Cortes made two starts against the Guardians in the ALDS, with a solid 2.70 ERA over 10 innings of work. The Yankees won the second of Cortes’ outings, the series-clinching Game 5.
Cortes missed a little over two weeks on the 15-day injured list with a left groin strain in late August and early September, so it would seem like this current injury may have been a recurrence of that original problem. Further roster maneuvers may soon be a moot point for the Yankees since they trail the Astros by a 3-0 deficit in the ALCS, though if they force a Game 5 and have to replace Cortes on the roster, the left-hander wouldn’t be eligible to participate in the World Series if New York did launch a miracle comeback.
Excellent season by Cortes. Excellent season by the Astros who deserve to be the AL champs.
Why do these injuries always seem to be worst when they pitch badly, if he pitched well it would have been the same pain but nothing would be said
Is this a serious question?
Nothing would be said because there is no reason to say anything. You never disclose anything that your adversary might take advantage of. But when you are pulled, you have to explain why.
Yankees were outmanaged, out played, out pitched. Houston’s an Overall a better organization right now. Time to clean house, start at Levine and work your way down to Boone, and rebuild a winner.
Sign Judge or not? I’m curious as to what people think his contract is worth now, being that he became a ghost in the playoffs and gave up any reason to believe he’s the next captain and the next Mike Trout
Cortes is a lefty.
His butt hurt after Pena unloaded on him
As a Hou fan, it was obvious Cortes was trying to give everything he had and then some. He just previously started alds g5 on short rest, which probably had a lot to do with injury today. Nice season, Cortes.
Houston still deserves the moniker “the cheaters” for their past, but they won this post-season by such a wide margin that it certainly is impressive. But in a single seven game series, anything can happen, so rootin’ for those Phils..
Virtually all (save a couple) from the 2017 team are gone. Combine that with the season they had and the domination they’ve showed, it’s time to move on. Individual players can still be labeled if they participated but THIS team is not a cheating team. Get over it.
Divebomber81,
Umm, for the former “cheaters”:
1) tonight’s first baseman was on the team in 2017 and 2022,
2) tonight’s second baseman was on the team in 2017 and 2022,
3) tonight’s third baseman was on the team in 2017 and 2022, and,
4) tonight’s starting pitcher was on the team in 2017 and 2022.
Judge was on the 2016 Cheating Yankee team. Severino and Hicks also.
Cole was one, but they overlook it when it’s their guy now.
Ella wasn’t staying with the Sox. Why are the yanks so obsessed with the Sox? Also, idiocy for trying to use the 04 Sox comeback over the yanks as motivation. Hysterically ironic actually. This team lacked the heart, drive and chemistry of that team, but other than that maybe, they did have the same number of guys.
I think he stays. It’s what they do. They’ll overspend and be hamstrung on their “budget” and have to make due in other areas.
The coaches should’ve seen it and pulled him. The pen is their weak link in the series though, so they stayed with him.
Cole is a Honda, but being paid like he’s a Mercedes. They’re just lucky he’s not a yugo. He pitched well enough in the post season this year. The offense had nothing too many times.
That’s the way Cashman operates. High Roller table.
You are a pathetic hater that is out of touch.
I’m not going to get into the cheating thing, but that core is still there. Bergman was the face of the bad PR during the lack-of-apology-tour. This team is great and likely would have been without cheating, which in some ways makes it worse. It doesn’t matter if they win the next 4 WS. They aren’t shaking their moniker. I mean I respect the talent and I think they earned their way, but I’m not going to sit here and feel bad that fans are calling them names that they sort of earned.
As a Yankee fan, I think it was idiotic for fans in the stands to bring signs like “Welcome Back, Cheaters!”
Cashman paid a king’s ransom in a stupid contract to Cole, whose Astros stats should be scrubbed when appraising him, since he and Verlander were both using Spider Tack from that Angels clubhouse guy whom Manfred’s office threw under the bus in a typically lame effort to make the scandal go away. Then Cashman signed ex-Astro Marwin Gonzalez. And as if that weren’t enough, they hired the originator of the camera/trash can scheme, Carlos Beltran, to work as an announcer for the YES Network. Talk about a tone-deaf front office.
With those three additions, any standing for Yankee fans to keep complaining about Houston’s cheating were forfeited.
Fink,
Hypocritical, I could give you that. Idiotic, no. Fans deserve a lot of latitude when they take swipes at rival teams. It’s what fans do.
Anyway, pretty soon you won’t be able to “Judge” Yankee fans.
If you’re referring to Aaron Judge, I said here long ago that I think he’ll sign with the Giants.
Fink,
Yes, I agree. Giants, Dodgers, Mets, Yankees, in that order
.
That looks realistic to me.
Nope, it’s idiotic. Be more clever or you just sound like the lame people that post the same…”der dey cheated” things on here.
I was just wondering whatever happened to Jeff Luhnow’s lawsuit against the Astros, so I did some reading and found this in The Times:
‘The lawsuit claims that Manfred “let the ringleader keep his position in exchange for providing information that would implicate Luhnow,” and goes on to identify Tom Koch-Weser, who is listed as the team’s director of advance information, as the mastermind. Manfred, the suit said, ignored more than 22,000 text and chat messages from Koch-Weser
“Tellingly, none of these messages sent or received by Koch-Weser included Luhnow or suggested that he had any awareness of the activity,” the suit states, adding that Koch-Weser “even texted his colleagues ‘don’t tell Jeff’” and emphasized that Luhnow was never aware of or involved in the scheme.’
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/09/sports/baseball/jeff-luhnow-astros-lawsuit.html
So, to set the record straight, Luhnow’s lawyers implicated this Koch-Weser dude as the author of the scheme, not Beltran (although Beltran was still up to his neck in it, by all accounts).
If Luhnow’s version of events is accurate, he should be as eligible for another job as Hinch and Cora. In fact, more so, since he didn’t know it was going on.
Fink: Thanks for the info about Luhnow.
You’re welcome. If anyone knows more about the disposition of his lawsuit, I’d be grateful for that information.
Just watch, if Cashman stays and they decide to fire Boone….they are stupid enough to make Beltran manager. Has the same smell as Girardi lurking around the YES booth waiting for Torre to get the boot.
Yup, Torre was the end of an era. Finished 1st 9 years in row. Then finished 2nd, two back of the RS, with a very respectable 94 wins, and Cashman tossed him. Then brought in Girardi, who promptly ruined Hughes, Kennedy & Joba.
You can cry and call them cheaters all you want but it doesn’t change the fact they have six straight playoff appearances, three World Series appearances, one title so far, Sox straight ALCS appearances….
To quote the great general Hummel, “we’re up here, you’re down there”
The last pitch Cortes threw that was above 89 MPH was a 91 MPH 4-seam fastball, his second-last pitch in the second inning. His first pitch in the third inning was an 88 MPH four-seamer. Clearly, he was hurt before he took the mound in the third inning — so why didn’t he say anything?
For certain fans here who just yesterday were beating their chests about wimpy players who don’t tough it out — here’s an object lesson in why it’s stupid when they do.
Besides risking aggravating injuries, they risk hurting their team; and in this case, the hurt was massive, a three-run homer that put the Astros on the board and tied the game.
Nestor was great this year, but in the most important game of the year he made the wrong decision. But this also speaks to Boone’s management of the team. He went out to the mound, and Nestor felt comfortable lying to him about his status. And Boone was supposedly brought in to replace Girardi because of his communication skills. Well, when the players don’t communicate critical information, that communication is a one-way street.
Getting swept in the ALCS would be worth it if Hal would do the right thing and finally fire the massively overrated Brian Cashman and his subservient manager who came to the job with zero managing experience. But we all know that Hal won’t fire anybody, because that would be too much like his dad, and Hal’s apparently determined to prove he’s different from his dad.
Well, Hal, you needn’t worry about that. Nobody is mistaking you for your dad. George would’ve dismissed both those guys long ago.
But no worries, right? The money’s great, with or without championships. What’s not to like?
Fink not sure where I heard this theory but it made some sense in my mind at the time … the theory goes Hal knows jack squat about baseball, like absolutely clueless. So this entire time he has leaned on Cashman hard to be his all around baseball guru/explainer/whisperer. So Cashman is basically Hal’s security blanket, and Hal is completely dependent on him to make all the crucial baseball decisions, since Hal knows nothing, and may not even be all that interested in baseball generally. So that is why Cashman persists and persists: he has made himself indispensable to Hal and how he runs the business. You think there could be some truth to that ?
I’ve heard the same theory, ISOB.
Here’s an excerpt from a very interesting and possibly insightful interview with Hal from 2016:
‘He knows, however, who he is not. “I’m not trying to be George,” he says. “I never walked into this with the concept of trying to act like George, trying to be everything that George was, ’cause I can’t. Nobody can.”
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/page/springtraining_halsteinbrenner/who-exactly-new-york-yankees-owner-hal-steinbrenner
Hal should be spending more. It pains me to say that, but last I looked, he had a higher cash flow than either the LAD or NYM, and they both outspend him by a fair margin.
Fu** Aaron Boone and Cashman.
Cashman took on a $50M contract obligation for over-the-hill, glove-only Josh Donaldson, so I guess maybe that’s why Boone insisted on playing him in every game, racking up strikeouts, despite IKF having won a Gold Glove at third base, and Peraza being a better fielder at shortstop than IKF. IKF batted .278 in the playoffs, while Donaldson batted .172. Gee, tough call.
Probably went south for the Yankee’s, when they “won” the Cole sweepstakes. Time to say adios to Boone, and Judge, and go on from here. Maybe they can pay Cole some money to leave in a trade. No more tar.
That’s another in a series of albatross contracts signed by Cashman. Time to say adios to him, first of all — except he seems to own guaranteed lifetime employment no matter how badly he screws up and no matter how long the flawed rosters he puts together prolong their October failures.
Gerrit Cole
CATEGORY G W L IP ERA BAA WHIP
Pre All-Star 19 9 2 113.1 3.02 .195 0.981
Post All-Star 14 4 6 87.1 4.13 .226 1.068
Gerrit Cole is still a good pitcher, the type of guy that would easily get five years $110 million. $324 million no way. Just makes me wonder what Scott Boras will get 26 year old Julio Urias in 2024.
Boras played Cashman like a rube at a 3-card Monte table.
I think the idea was to strengthen the Yankees while weakening the Astros. Damon and Ellsbury signings were as much about weakening the Red Sox as they were about strengthening the Yankees.
Yup, the weakening of the RS idea seemed pretty weak, since Ellsbury was replacing Damon, and JBJ was going to replace Ellsbury. The RS weren’t going to re-sign either guy.
Except Johnny Damon could hit…..
He remained a productive hitter, but his CF skills were long gone.
Explain hater?
The Red Sox were 9 games worse after Damon left and 26 games worse after Ellsbury left. The Yankees taking those players away was a part of that decline. The Yankees, on the other hand, stayed at the same level after those guys came on board. So they didn’t really make the Yankees better. And that’s that.
There was certainly a drop off, but the Yankees still didn’t “take” them. The RS were moving on. It was actually Crisp who took Damon’s place initially. But since JD couldn’t play CF, and we had Manny in LF, Johnny’s time in Boston was over.
Unfortunately a poor showing by the Yanks. Never been a fan of the Astros even before the cheating scandal. I hope the Phillies destroy them!
Go Phillies go!
me too!
Another “wait until next year” season for we Yankees fans. Nester was a good find. Cole is not superman. Donaldson was too old when they traded for him. Judge is Judge…a man that big is going to have slumps, and unfortunately this slump came at a terrible time. Stanton is on a slow decline–still useful, but not anywhere near his peak. Bader looks like a real player. Chapman is a disaster. Time for a change in the Manager and GM, but the new leadership (hoping they get it) just needs to be dispassionate. The team will be paying for Cashman mistakes from last off-season to trading deadline for some time. Let a new face handle it.
Yeah Judge crashed and had a terrible .063 batting average.
I heard speculation on the FAN this morning, that the run for 62 might’ve worn him down. I’ve been in obviously lesser circumstances. But the stress of focusing so hard and so long, can wear you down mentally.
Good speculating. Great point. Not much time for a mental reset in baseball. He was under the hammer for a long time.
Cant get on Judge too much…. he carried the team on his back all season….then screwed up his swing going for 62. The rest of the team needed to pick him up for a change.
I understand how Cortez feels. This season has been a big kick in the groin.
Your team just went to the ALCS. I understand it came to a dissapointing end, but have some perspective.
Perspective is an interesting choice of words. From the Yankees fans perspective, the ALCS isn’t good enough. They have had little problem getting that far. It’s time for a WS.
For all those salivating over the prospect of Hal cleaning house and throttling both Cash and Boone, consider these facts:
1. In season, Cash flipped Monty for Bader. And got killed for it. Now, who looks like they won that deal?
2. Took Carpenter off the junk heap and he carried the team for a time.
3. Took Nestor Cortese off the junk heap and he was an all-star.
4. Stole Jose Trevino from Texas and he was an all-star.
5. Unloaded Gary Sanchez for IKF and Donaldson. A Faustian bargain, to be sure, but had they gotten slightly better production out of both it would have been a steal.
6. Swiped Anthony Rizzo from the Cubs and he was a star on both sides of the ball even with a bad back.
7. Drafted Anthony Volpe who will be a star for years to come.
8. Assembled an excellent bullpen by acquiring the likes of Chad Greene and Clay Holmes and Scott Efross. Injuries cannot be predicted nor coached through.
9. Created a managerial DNA pool that has now fostered Rob Thompson in Philly and Buck and Billy Eppler with Mets and many others.
10. Made the post-season every year except two in 25 years.
…anyone else that thinks they can improve on that record…be my guest.
True. cashman isnt the problem. its been the same old story for the yankees for past decade. Injured players down the stretch. Not sure if its ego playing these players every day or just don’t want to be replaced by the AAA players on a game or tow or on a trade, but they’ve gotten injured in September every year for the past 10 years.
ALCS – both closers, two relievers, dj lamaheiu all injured or not in lineup.
New Yorker had it best on a cover with the yankees lineup in wheelchairs.
And Cashman also:
a) hired an agreeable ex-player/TV announcer with no managerial experience who agreed to take orders from Cashman’s analytics department and who juggled the lineup in every game of the ALCS, while the bulk of the Astros’ lineup remained unchanged;
b) picked up a $50M salary obligation to an over-the-hill, 36-year-old glove-only third baseman whom the manager couldn’t figure out didn’t belong in the lineup although IKF (who played out of position all year) had a Gold Glove at third base and Oswald Peraza played a better shortstop than IKF;
c) put the franchise on the hook for a massive contract to acquire Stanton, who, at the time, was a DH they didn’t need, a player who’s been repeatedly injured and whose high-strikeout approach was exactly what the club had too much of already and which allowed good pitching to handcuff the offense in the playoffs time and again;
d) added Joey Gallo to the high-strikeout collection in return for four prospects, three of whom were already in the majors soon after the trade — and then he held onto him far past the point of futility;
e) gave the largest-ever contract to a pitcher and the third-highest AAV of all active players to a pitcher whose spin rate was dependent on Spider Tack, a fact that had been exposed a year earlier but was apparently ignored by the Ninja while Boras conned him into bidding against himself for a choke artist who ranked 32nd in fWAR among qualified starters this year;
f) played Torres out of position for most of last year, and then replaced him with a third baseman playing out of position whose gaffes were killers in the playoffs, causing him to be benched rather than moved to his better position to replace useless Donaldson;
e) entered the season with a starting staff littered with question marks, the majority of whom hadn’t pitched enough in previous years to be counted on to last through the season and into the postseason (and what happened to Cortes?);
f) gave Billy Beane a raft of talent for an injured starter whose last previous outing was a disaster in which his fastball velocity plummeted after three innings and who was useless in the playoffs — for which he’d been acquired in the first place;
e) gave a 7-year, $70M contract to Aaron Hicks, despite his injury history — leading to Judge playing center field for much of the season and rookie Oswaldo Cabrera playing left field in the playoffs and being overmatched by the best pitching in the league with everything on the line.
There’s more, but you get the idea, no?
Cashman has had more money to spend than all his peers since 2009 and has never assembled a championship team in all that time. Apparently that’s good enough for you, but it’s not for most of the Yankee fan base, nor should it be.
“…anyone else that thinks they can improve on that record…be my guest.”
Take a peek at the Astros, who’ve improved on it with a lot less money invested in the effort.
Hell, the Rays sent this outfit to the golf course on a shoestring budget not long ago.
Not a fan of either Cashman or Boone, but even at my Yankee-hating best, they didn’t really do anything wrong. .611 in a really tough division is pretty good. Their only problem is that Houston is really, really good. Outside of their initial 14 games, they’ve had virtually no slumps. And they have almost no weaknesses.
Gurriel at 1st is their worst player, and everyone else is average or better. And their #6 SP might be the #1 on no small amount of teams, including my RS.
And the Yankees go out with a whimper. There season was over with the Montgomery trade.
I don’t know if it would have made much of a difference but when you spend as much as the Yankees and Mets spent, getting swept out of the playoffs is pretty unacceptable… (losing in the wildcard round is completely unacceptable).
Imo, doing what the Mets and to a lesser extent the Yankees did at the trade deadline is basically the death of 1000 cuts, afraid to deal from the upper tier of the farm system so they trade for minor upgrades, they play ticky tacky so long the depth of the farm system gets destroyed. So if your “top guys” young and volatile, flame out, you’re left with nothing.
The Yankees had more than enough this year to get Juan Soto… and if Judge left, who cares? You have Juan Soto! Rizzo opts out? Still have Juan Soto. They would have had more than enough still to get both Effros and Robertson from the Cubs or even Happ which would have been a perfect fit for New York. But they didn’t, they ticky tacked and went with Benetindi and Bader. I like Bader but it cost Monty who I like better.
Bottom line, push your chips all in and then worry about rebuilding the farm system because farm systems are cool but championships are cooler