Nestor Cortes Jr. is ready to take the ball on Tuesday afternoon for the most important start of his life.
He will have the responsibility of keeping the New York Yankees in the game so the offense can score enough runs to send the team to the Championship Series against the Houston Astros.
If the Yanks lose, they go home and the Cleveland Guardians will be the ones advancing to the ALCS.
It doesn’t get better than this: it will be a winner-takes-all affair in the Bronx, starting this afternoon at 4:07 pm ET.
Cortes already has a start under his belt during this postseason: it came last Friday in Game 2 against the Guardians.
He wasn’t at his best, giving up two earned runs, six hits and three walks in five frames, striking out three hitters.
Despite not showing his best version, Cortes was able to execute tough pitches when he had to and left the game tied.
He showed some of his best arsenal, and we are not necessarily talking about pitches.
A Bag Full Of Tricks
We are talking about changing speeds, arm slots, messing with the hitter’s timing, and befuddling them with cutters, sliders, and an occasional 94-mph fastball.
“Is he really better because of this? Yes, just watch the hitters,” Codify Baseball tweeted, while quoting a Rob Friedman’s video of Cortes messing with hitters’ timing.
Is he really better because of this?
Yes, just watch the hitters. https://t.co/3WXEtcn4ZN— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) October 18, 2022
From quick, unexpected pitches to weird deliveries that take forever and get the hitter out of his focus zone, Cortes has every trick in the bag.
It’s all legal, and as Codify explains, it works to perfection.
Not everybody can do these things and still throw a quality pitch in the strike zone, but Cortes has impeccable command and incredible focus.
It’s not a coincidence that he finished the regular season with a 2.44 ERA.
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