Empty Nestor

 

That was a good 36 or so hours where the Brewers, between Caleb Durbin's strides in the spring and Devin Williams struggling in the ninth on game one, thought they'd gotten the better end of the deal.

I don't like that all of this happened to Nestor Cortes. He's a great guy that deserves all the best things to happen to him. Every time I've seen him pitch in the Bronx, while it's not exactly a Gerrit Cole start, you never exactly leave his good side. I collect the guy, I want him to succeed wherever he goes. If this had happened to, like...Jose Quintana or D.L. Hall or whoever, my conscience would be clean. But...Nestor Cortes's return to Yankee Stadium resulted in one of the biggest home run games in Yankee history, three of them happening on Nestor's first three pitches of the game. To say the Yanks clobbered him is an understatement: he had two innings of giving up 8 runs, and 5 homers, and that was it. 

There's obviously the worry that something's up with Nestor, even after he got back last year from the injury. Just immediately gives up unfortunate homers. This is the kind of thing where they do some tests and it turns out he has to have surgery or something. OR he just...snaps to it the next start, and Yankee Stadium was the problem. Which is likely. Nestor has every right to be mad at the Yankees, they rushed him, made him try and close a must win game, and let him be the goat. And then they trade him, and immediately have rotation depth issues. Which ironically the Brewers are also having, with Woodruff, Hall, Ashby and Myers all hurt. So Cortes goes 'I'll show them', and...gets lit up. As does the bullpen.

It's undeniable that the Brewers are a great team, and they were able to make Thursday's game close and today's game not a runaway with 9 runs, but...the rotation depth issue is gonna make it difficult for a little while. Even if Cortes doesn't need to miss time, he's capable of innings like these. As are the once-strong bullpen guys. So Chourio, Ortiz, Frelick, Turang and Capra getting off to great starts is very helpful, but they're still, like...giving up 20 runs. Most teams, most good teams, aren't doing that.

I still want the Brewers to succeed this year, and they likely will given the amount of talent, but today's game was a massive ego blow. And Nestor I still feel so bad for. It's nice that he's not a Yankee anymore while getting lit up, but...I hate that I'm saying that. Cause I LIKE Nestor Cortes. He's a great pitcher. But I'm not gonna say I didn't enjoy seeing my team score 20 runs against him and his compatriots. I'd prefer this be the norm for us than the norm for them. 

Coming Tomorrow- He's gonna make a lot of money this year playing in a sweltering minor league stadium.