Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Nestor Cortes experienced a nightmare in his return to Yankee Stadium Saturday. Cortes skipped talking with media after allowing three home runs on the first three pitches of the game. Cortes was pulled after allowing five total home runs in just a few innings of work.
“It’s not a good feeling,” Cortes said, per ESPN. “So obviously didn’t go the way I planned.”
The Yankees annihilated the Brewers, 20-9, behind nine home runs. Aaron Judge hit three of them, in one of the most memorable performances of his career.
Cortes played last season for the Yankees. He had high hopes for his return on Saturday.
“Obviously I spent a few years over there, and I was able to be on their side and not have to face them, but I think this comes with the territory of being a major league pitcher,” Cortes added. “You never know where you’re going to end up and at some point, you’re going to face somebody you know or somebody that’s close to you and it just happened to be yesterday.”
The Brewers said it was a miscommunication that Cortes didn’t show up to speak with media afterward, per the outlet.
The Brewers are better than what they have shown in the Yankees series
The Brewers have seen disaster at the start of the 2025 baseball season. Not only has the team gotten crushed on defense, Milwaukee’s bats are not giving them the pop needed to overcome their poor pitching.
Brewers fans have to be stunned. Milwaukee had such an outstanding 2024 season, winning the NL Central. The addition of players like Cortes made many feel as if the club could compete for an NL pennant this year.
Cortes still has the trust of his Brewers teammates, despite his poor showing Saturday.
“I don’t know how he handled it, but I do know he’s a professional and he’s a damn good pitcher,” Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers said, per MLB.com. “He’s going to bounce back, and he’s going to be solid for us.”
Even Cortes’ former teammate Yankees slugger Aaron Judge knows that Cortes has more in him.
“Nestor’s been here for years, one of the best lefty pitchers in the game,” Judge said. “He’s a guy that’s going to go out there, throw strikes, attack you. So we just tried to go out there and be aggressive in our zone. ‘Goldy’ and ‘Belli’ set the table there and got things going. The place was rocking once I walked up there.”
The Brewers and Yankees are playing again on Sunday. Milwaukee is trying to avoid a sweep in the series.
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