Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes dives into first base to win race with speedy Steven Kwan

As Aaron Boone put it after the Yankees’ 5-4 victory over the Guardians on Saturday, “The legend of Nestor grows.”

Boone wasn’t talking about Nestor Cortes’ stellar pitching. Sure, he threw no-hit ball for 4 1/3 innings, allowing only one hit — Josh Naylor's two-run homer — and striking out eight in 6 1/3 innings. But that wasn't it.

No, it was the sight of “Nasty Nestor” delighting the crowd of 39,180 by getting an out with a headfirst dive into first base.

That’s right, the pitcher dived headfirst into first base. It happened with one out in the fourth inning of a scoreless game when Steven Kwan sent a grounder to Anthony Rizzo.  

Cortes was late getting off the mound, and the race between the speedy Kwan and the less-than-speedy Cortes was on. Both dived at the bag and Cortes caught it with his glove a millisecond before Kwan reached it with his fingertips.

“I had to make up some ground,” Cortes said. “I knew the only way to get him was to dive. I’m happy it worked.”

Cortes said his teammates told him “that I look like an athlete out there. But they don’t know that I am an athlete. Under this body, there’s a guy that’s athletic.”

Cortes followed by striking out Yankees nemesis Jose Ramirez on a 91-mph fastball that was unleashed only after one of the funkiest windups you’ll ever see. Cortes hesitated and wiggled his hips before swinging his right leg all the way back and then turning to fire the pitch.

Cortes, who struck out 12 Orioles in five innings in his previous start, became the first Yankees starter this season to get an out in the seventh inning. He has allowed two runs, seven hits and three walks in 15 2/3 innings, striking out 25.

Josh Donaldson gave the Yankees a 3-2 lead with a homer into the Guardians' bullpen in  the seventh, but Austin Hedges’ two-out, two-run shot off Chad Green in the eighth gave Cleveland its third hit of the game and a 4-3 advantage. Before picking up his first homer and second and third RBIs of the season on the 3-and-2 pitch, Hedges had been 3-for-31. 

The Yankees rallied in the ninth with a pair of two-out runs off closer Emmanuel Clase. Donaldson led off with a walk and was replaced by pinch runner Tim Locastro, who stole second as Aaron Hicks struck out. After Joey Gallo hit a broken-bat liner to first, Isiah Kiner-Falefa tied it with a double off the leftfield wall. Pinch hitter Gleyber Torres, who did not start for the second time in three games and third in five, drove in the game-winner with a single to right-center as the Yankees improved to 9-6. Both clutch hits came on 1-and-2 pitches.

After getting off to a 1-for-17 start, Kiner-Falefa has gone 13-for-30. He also singled home the Yankees' first run on Saturday and ensured that Joey Gallo would score the tying run, taking off for second on Kyle Higashioka's shallow sacrifice fly and making the Guardians cut off the throw home. They nailed Kiner-Falefa at second, but not before Gallo crossed the plate. 

Cole hoping for a turnaround

Gerrit Cole needs a hug. 

“It’s not fun to not pitch well,” said Cole, who will bring a 6.35 ERA into Sunday’s start against Cleveland. 

“There’s a lot of people who’ve watched me for a long time,” he said. “My wife. My teammates. People have offered some advice or even just like a hug or something.” 

Who’s giving him the best advice? Cole said it’s his 21-month-old son, Caden, who he joked tells his dad, “Relax.”  

No doubt Caden gives the best hugs, too. And Cole needs that after he walked five in a 1 2/3-inning outing against the Tigers on Tuesday. 

Cole has been the weak link in an effective Yankees rotation. He’s hoping the turnaround begins on Sunday. 

“I think it’s kind of small adjustments, really,” he said. “We were going for really perfect pitches, I think, probably too often, I was. I think just in certain situations if I had attacked the zone better, I would have been in a better spot. That’s what we worked on this week and is what we’re taking into this game. 

“It’s not like I’m trying to throw the ball on one side of the plate and I’m missing on the other side of the plate. I’m trying to throw the ball and I’m missing just outside the strike zone by two, three inches. So there’s probably some mechanical aspect to it. There’s obviously mental, like I need to realize that this is a situation where I can pound the strike zone.” 

King for a night 

Michael King struck out eight Guardians, including his last seven batters, on Friday in a three-inning relief stint in the Yankees’ 4-1 victory. 

King didn’t get a shot at tying Ron Davis’ Yankees record of eight strikeouts in a row because manager Aaron Boone brought in Aroldis Chapman to replace him to start the ninth. 

“Boonie, come on!” King jokingly said when informed of his chance at Yankees history. “I had no idea. I’ll take my three innings and bounce.” 

Cole said he got so locked into watching King’s mastery that he listened in on the PitchCom conversations between the pitcher and catcher Jose Trevino. 

“I don’t know if that’s legal, actually,” Cole said. “Sometimes we get interested and we just listen to the pitches, right?” 

King, who threw 42 pitches, used a four-pitch mix, which is rare for a reliever. That’s why Boone said “the book is certainly not closed” on the 26-year-old becoming a starter if the Yankees need another one down the road. 

“Not right now,” Boone said. “Just because he’s so valuable in this role.” 

King is 1-0 with one save, a 0.84 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 10 2/3 innings. He said he had a “terrible” pregame bullpen session and then found once he hit the mound for real that all four of his pitches were spot-on. 

“I was texting with Sam Briend, the [Yankees’] minor-league pitching director, and he said, ‘You had all four working today,’ ” King said. “When I have all four, it allows me to kind of like do some fun stuff and toy around with players, really keep them off balance.” 

By Anthony Rieber

anthony.rieber@newsday.comAnthonyRieber

Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.