Yankees lefty Nestor Cortes forced to leave ALCS Game 4 in third inning with groin injury
Yankees starting pitcher Nestor Cortes (65) after allowing a home run in the 3rd inning in Game 4 of the ALCS at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, Oct 23, 2022. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
The legend of Nestor Cortes took an apparently painful turn Sunday night.
Cortes suffered a left groin injury, forcing him to leave his start in the third inning of Game 4 of the ALCS against the Astros — the pivot point of a momentum-shifting sequence in which Houston took the lead.
For the first two innings, Cortes kind of cruised, retiring six of eight batters. He wasn’t particularly efficient, but he didn’t allow anybody past first base.
Then Martin Maldonado led off the top of the third with a five-pitch walk. After Cortes missed with a 1-and-1 pitch to Jose Altuve, showing no obvious signs of discomfort, manager Aaron Boone and head athletic trainer Tim Lentych visited the mound to check on him.
They left Cortes in the game, but that lasted only eight more pitches. Altuve walked and Jeremy Pena hit a tying three-run home run well over the leftfield wall. Boone and Lentych returned, and this time Cortes left with them. His fastball velocity had dropped from 91-92 mph in the first inning — in line with his season average — to 88 in the third.
Boone said during an in-game interview on TBS that Cortes had been dealing with a groin problem since his first start in the ALDS. Cortes said Saturday he was able to complete his usual between-starts routine without issue.
His final line in his third playoff game: two innings (plus three batters), two hits, three runs, three walks, two strikeouts. In his first two, he held Cleveland to three runs in 10 innings.
This had been a charmed season for the lefthander, a 27-year-old journeyman who became an All-Star. He had a 2.44 ERA.
For Pena, the rookie replacement for former franchise cornerstone Carlos Correa (who signed with the Twins last offseason), the homer was his third in seven postseason games. He hit .253 with 22 homers, 63 RBIs and sharp defense in the regular season.
Boone replaced Cortes with Wandy Peralta, who allowed Houston to take the lead on three hits, including Yordan Alvarez’s double and Yuli Gurriel’s RBI single. Anthony Rizzo’s two-out RBI single in the fourth tied it at 4-4.
Boone and Lentych made a third rapid-fire trip to the mound after Peralta was struck in the right (glove) hand by Kyle Tucker’s line drive, but Peralta stayed in the game.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
