Yankees beat Red Sox, win both games at Fenway Park
The Yankees' Gleyber Torres celebrates after sliding home safely on a throwing error by Red Sox catcher Connor Wong, after driving in Aaron Judge and Aaron Hicks on a single during the fifth inning of a game at Fenway Park on Wednesday. Credit: AP/Charles Krupa
BOSTON – Based strictly on 2022 resumes, Nestor Cortes is the ace of the Yankees rotation.
And though there’s little chance the lefthander starts the Yankees' first playoff game – that honor, whenever it is, all but certainly will go to Gerrit Cole – no rotation member has shut down the opposition with more consistency this season.
That continued Wednesday when Cortes allowed one run over five innings of a 5-3 victory over the Red Sox in front of 36,581 at Fenway Park as the Yankees completed a two-game sweep.
“He’s pitched like an All-Star all year for us,” Aaron Boone said of Cortes, named to his first All-Star Game in July. “He’s obviously going to play a huge role for us moving forward down the stretch.”
Aaron Judge, after homering twice in Tuesday night’s 7-6 victory to get to 57 for the season, did not increase that total in finishing 1-for-4 with a walk.
The Yankees (87-56), off Thursday before starting a three-game series against the Brewers in Milwaukee Friday night, stayed six games ahead of the Blue Jays, who again beat the Rays, in the American League East.
Cortes (10-4, 2.70) made it 18 of 25 starts this season in which he’s allowed two earned runs or fewer, allowing one run and three hits over five innings in which he walked two and struck out seven. With the Yankees trying to somewhat limit Cortes’ innings down the stretch – he’d already thrown a career-high 135 innings coming into the night, his previous high being the 93 he threw last season – Cortes was pulled after 65th pitch, which resulted in a leadoff walk in the sixth to Alex Verdugo.
“I was able to control both sides of the plate,” Cortes said. “I think everything was pretty good.”
Clarke Schmidt relieved and struck out the side, the start of two scoreless innings from the righthander, who is one of several pitchers making a case for a postseason spot in the bullpen. Jonathan Loaisiga allowed a run in the eighth to make it 4-2 and was bailed out when J.D. Martinez somehow missed first base – coming up about an inch short of it – on a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning (he was initially called safe, but the Yankees won their challenge).
“I did not,” Boone said, asked if he saw Martinez miss first. “That was obviously huge.”
After the Yankees got an insurance run in the top of the ninth, Clay Holmes recorded his 20th save in 25 chances, though he allowed a run to make it 5-3.
The Yankees outhit the Red Sox (69-74), 9-7, with a suddenly hot Gleyber Torres going 3-for-5, which improved the second baseman to 9 for his last 22 (.409). Torres, whose bases-clearing double in the 10th inning Tuesday snapped a 4-4 tie, was responsible for the Yankees first three runs Wednesday, hitting what amounted to a “Little League” home run in the fifth, driving in a run with an RBI single with two runners on, then coming around to score on the play on the second of three Red Sox errors.
“All season long, we’ve been aggressive on the bases,” said Torres, who made a big turn at first after his fifth-inning single, which drew a wild throw from catcher Connor Wong that skipped far up the rightfield line and allowed Judge and Torres to score to make it 3-0.
Torres should have been credited with a fourth hit on a long drive that drove centerfielder Abraham Almonte up against the wall in the triangle in center after a lengthy run, the ball bouncing out of his glove – and scored an error – which allowed Tim Locastro, pinch running for Giancarlo Stanton, who doubled, to make it 5-2.
The highlight of Cortes' night was the fourth when he struck out the side, which made it nine straight retired. The second of those strikeouts was to Rafael Devers, who looked absolutely flummoxed when Cortes went into one of his quirky corkscrew motions, in this case starting his delivery, lowering his leg, then starting again. Devers watched an 88-mph fastball sail past and simply walked back to the dugout.
“I was a little bit caught off guard,” Jose Trevino, who had an RBI double in the sixth, said with a smile of the pitch to Devers.
Cortes smiled as well.
“I will be honest, I almost fell over,” Cortes said. “I was just happy it was a competitive pitch.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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