CHICAGO — Nestor Cortes said it has been a little different. On the last road trip, he was hungry and grabbed an apple to eat in the dugout. It went viral, and last week he filmed a spot at MLB Network with the apple. During the last homestand, he was out in the bullpen and looked up to see three little boys not just wearing his jersey, they had put black tape over their top lips to copy his mustache.
“That was cool,” Cortes said of the little boys. “I signed some things for them. That was pretty cool. It’s very different now, people are recognizing me more and more.”
While everyone around baseball seems to be discovering how good Cortes is, the 27-year-old lefty just keeps doing his job and getting outs. Sunday, the Yankees managed just two hits, but Cortes took the run support and made it look like the game was always completely in hand. He pitched seven dominant innings as the Yankees beat the White Sox, 5-1, at Guaranteed Rate Field Sunday.
The Yankees (25-9) won three out of the four games in this series and maintained the best record in baseball. They have won 10 series this season and 18 of their last 21 games.
The Yankees did not have a baserunner from the second inning until Josh Donaldson’s two-out walk in the top of the ninth. Joey Gallo, whose walk in the second started the Yankees’ weird rally, homered right after to give the Yankees their second hit of the day.
It didn’t matter to Cortes, who gave up just his fifth home run of the season.
He allowed one run over seven innings of work, an eighth-inning solo shot by Adam Engle to the left field bullpen. It was just the third hit the White Sox managed off him. He did not walk a batter and struck out seven. Cortes got 13 swing-and-misses, eight on his fastball, and he got 20 called strikes, 10 on his slider.
It was the 16th straight start in which Cortes allowed three runs or fewer, tied for the second longest streak in Yankees history. The only Yankee starter with a longer streak is Russ Ford, who did it in 20 games from 1910-11.
The lefty retired 15 straight after giving up a two-out single to Luis Robert in the first, including striking out the side on 10 pitches in the third. Tim Anderson got a two-out single off him in the sixth. Cortes coaxed a fly ball out from Andrew Vaughn to end the inning.
The Yankees scored three runs on four walks and a single in the second inning. Michael Kopech gave a two-out walk to Gallo and Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled. He walked Jose Trevino to load the bases and then walked Aaron Hicks after a seven-pitch at-bat to bring in the first run. He walked DJ LeMahieu to bring in the second and then Trevino scored on a wild pitch.
Kopech allowed those three runs and just that one hit. He walked four and struck out three in six innings of work.
