World Series 2024: Nestor Cortes Jr. and the Yankees bullpen fail to get the final three outs in Game 1 loss to the Dodgers

LOS ANGELES – When Yankees reliever Jake Cousins ​​strolled to the mound in the bottom of the 10th inning, he faced a simple but delicate task: Retire the team in order against the bottom third of the Dodgers lineup – and Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts stayed behind and Freddie Freeman stayed to watch — and Game 1 of the World Series would belong to New York.

If one of Will Smith, Gavin Lux or Tommy Edman reached base, the entire complexion of the ballgame would change. With Ohtani at the helm, it was certain that Cousins ​​would be pulled should the future NL MVP come onto the scene. And who would face Ohtani out of the New York bullpen in this scenario? That was a question manager Aaron Boone certainly didn't want to answer.

Six days earlier, Cousins ​​had been brilliant in ALCS Game 5, striking out four of the five batters he faced in the later stages of a tie game that the Yankees would win and clinch the American League pennant. Cousins ​​is one of several Yankees reliever recovery projects who have gradually earned Boone's trust at high-profile spots, and with go-to guys Clay Holmes, Tommy Kahnle and Luke Weaver already contributing in the regular season have, it was Cousins ​​— with just one career save to his name — who got the ball and had the chance to end Game 1.

With three more outs, the Yankees would eke out a narrow victory in a game that featured top hitter Gerrit Cole delivering six outstanding one-run ball innings and another spectacular shot from October standout Giancarlo Stanton that gave New York a lead in the sixth Inning. Jazz Chisholm Jr., coming off a terribly quiet ALCS, had reclaimed the Yankees' lead with a leadoff single and an aggressive base run to score a run in the top of the 10th. Aside from Cole and Stanton, it wasn't exactly smooth sailing for New York to enter the bottom of the 10th with a lead – there were repeated breakdowns throughout the game with runners in scoring position and a defensive error by Gleyber Torres – but with Nur three more outs and everything would be forgotten.

Smith flied out to right for a harmless first out, but Lux followed with a five-pitch walk. As effective as Cousins ​​was as a Yankee, he has a tendency to lose the zone relatively often, particularly against left-handed hitters, and that ferocity resurfaced at a brutally inopportune time. Suddenly, an Ohtani plate appearance was imminent, preventing Edman from getting a double play. But when Edman hit a hard grounder up the middle and second baseman Oswaldo Cabrera failed to get a few outs in time, there was a lot more looming for New York than just Ohtani. With just one out, Betts and Freeman grabbed their bats and prepared to strike out in case Ohtani didn't get through.

But first, the dreaded question the Yankees would have preferred left unanswered: Who would face Ohtani?

Boone had two left-handed hitters to choose from: Nestor Cortes Jr. and Tim Hill. Hill, a journeyman like Cousins, has found a home in the Yankees' bullpen as a lateral southpaw who continues to amaze opposing hitters with his unique arm angle and has performed well in seven appearances this October. Cortes represents a much more familiar face — a former All-Star who has become a fixture on New York's pitching staff in recent years — but a much bigger unknown at this point. He hadn't pitched since September 18 after suffering a sprained elbow, but had rehabilitated over the past month and improved enough for New York to consider him worthy of inclusion on the World Series roster. particularly as a potential counter to the bevy of dangerous lefties in the LA lineup.

And with two of those lefties on the line in Ohtani and Freeman, Boone was confident Cortes was the right choice.

“I just liked the game,” he said after his team’s 3-6 defeat. “The reality is he's been throwing the ball very well over the last few weeks as he's been preparing for this. I knew it would be difficult to double Shohei with Tim Hill putting him on the floor and then Mookie behind him. He's a tough opponent there and felt confident with Nestor in that spot.

And so Cortes stepped up for the assignment that represented not only the biggest leverage of his major league career, but also the most daunting situation a reliever could possibly find himself in: an MVP trio with two more outs to go had.

As Cortes warmed up, the volume at Dodger Stadium reached a new high for the evening as the announced crowd of 52,394 eagerly awaited the possibility of a walk-off to the Ohtani World Series. But the anticipation of such a moment was abruptly dampened when Ohtani sent Cortes' first throw down the left field line, only to see Alex Verdugo make an outstanding grab in foul territory and for a shocking second over the wall and onto the Grandstand collapsed.

With Verdugo out of the game, the runners were allowed to advance to second and third. That left first base open, so Boone opted to use Betts to set up the left-on-left matchup for Cortes against Freeman, albeit with the bases loaded and Chavez Ravine ready to absolutely explode.

The expected Ohtani and/or Betts moments may have been for naught, but that's why the Dodgers keep winning MVPs. This time it was Freeman's turn.

Once again, Cortes' first pitch – a fastball that catcher Austin Wells wanted high and in but that trickled down into Freeman's nitro zone – was swung with ill intent. And this time it had no chance of being caught by anyone other than the crowd of enthusiastic Dodgers fans that had filled the pavilion to the right. About seven minutes after Cortes entered the game in hopes of securing the Yankees' Game 1 victory, Freeman hit the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history. Life comes at you quickly in October.

A Yankees bullpen that didn't allow an earned run over 15 2/3 innings in the ALDS against the Royals began to show cracks in the ALCS against the Guardians, but still managed to get the biggest outs in the biggest en route to a Series Moments to record victory in just five games. However, the Dodgers represent a whole different beast for New York's bullpen to tame. And in a series opener in Los Angeles in which Boone seemed able to deploy a fully rested relief corps – plus an apparent reinforcement from Cortes – in a fairly favorable order, the Yankees failed to record enough outs to earn one to secure victory.

This is the second time this month that the Yankees have found themselves on the losing side of an all-time October classic. Their only loss in the ALCS against Cleveland came particularly, if similarly exciting, in Game 3, a contest in which New York also took a late lead but squandered it on a walk-off home run. But as brutal as it was in that moment, it was relatively easy — and logical — for New York to maintain a sense of confidence after the heartbreaking loss in Cleveland. Still feeling firmly in control of the series, the Yankees were able to quickly record the result and move on with a calm that was confirmed as they wrapped up the series over the next two days.

There is no such luxury in Los Angeles at this point, as the Yankees lost their first series in October. If you didn't know exactly how it played out, it would be a perfectly reasonable outcome early in the series for the Yankees to drop Game 1 in Los Angeles. But the sequence of events and the combination of poor performances that led to New York's dramatic defeat on Friday were a sobering reminder of how tough the opponent is in the World Series – and how much better the Yankees will have to play and pitch if they do want to keep up with Los Angeles.