The New York Yankees were streaking when they visited the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday.
They had won seven games in a row.
However, they couldn’t extend the streak to eight and lost 8-1 in Target Field.
At 40-16, they still have the best record in baseball, but they fell to a solid team on Wednesday and showed they are not perfect.
Nestor Cortes, who had an incredible 1.50 ERA before last night’s outing, showed he is human, too.
In 4.1 innings, the funky left-hander conceded seven hits and four earned runs, with no walks and just three strikeouts.
Nestor Cortes' night is done:
4.1 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 0 BB, 3 SO
Season ERA: 1.96
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) June 9, 2022
Those are definitely not the numbers we are used to seeing from him in 2022, but he was due for a rough outing eventually: in today’s game, it’s really hard to maintain a 1.50 ERA, no matter how good you are.
He Has Been Having An Incredible Season
His outing wasn’t even that disastrous, yet his ERA went up almost half a run.
That should tell you just how dominant he has been this season.
The left-hander will try to leave this outing in the rearview mirror and bounce back next week when he takes the mound.
Even after posting a 2.90 ERA in 2021 and currently sporting a 1.96 mark, some people are seemingly waiting for him to “come back down to Earth”: they just can’t believe a pitcher with a 91-mph fastball can make hitters look as foolish as he has.
But the Yankees have a whole army of specialists behind him ready to help him stay afloat and keep getting outs consistently.
Don’t count on Cortes disappearing from the map and starting to pitch poorly: he has been counted out before, only to surge again.
NEXT: Dellin Betances Is Officially On The Comeback Trail