The Yankees played one of the fastest games I’ve ever personally watched, and certainly when accounting for the fact they scored seven runs. Nestor Cortes went through the Marlins lineup like it was soft butter, Anthony Volpe was a star on both sides of the ball, and New York won its third straight, 7-0. The official time of game was 121 minutes, the Yanks’ shortest nine-inning affair since 1992 — and that one was a loss!
Now, was Nestor Cortes good or was he just facing the third-worst offense in baseball? I’m in a good mood, so I’m going to say both. He pitched a clean first inning for the first time this season and struck out a pair of Marlins in the second, sandwiched around a really good defensive snag by Volpe.
The biggest issue Cortes has had this year has been too many “easy takes” — balls so far up out of the strike zone that a hitter can spit on them almost out of the hand.
Four of those easy, high takes came in the seventh and eighth, which I’m going to attribute to some fatigue as Nestor approached and exceeded 100 pitches. Outside of that, Nestor pounded the strike zone and engineered 15 whiffs, seven on a cutter that Marlins hitters just couldn’t figure out.
The Marlins are not a good baseball team, but had Cortes struggled, I’d be spending part of this recap wondering if he’d be best suited for a swingman role. Eight innings, no runs, and just two baserunners will play any day (his longest outing since May 2022), and for the first time in 2024, I think we can say Nestor was truly nasty.
On the hitting side, this team has been on a run of big games or shutouts, and they certainly weren’t silenced. The Yankees had traffic in the first two innings, and Juan Soto laced an opposite-field double in the third, but it wasn’t until the fourth inning that they began to make the Marlins pay for it — starting with the MVP of this very young season, Anthony Volpe:
It wasn’t just at the dish where Volpe made his presence felt, making a pair of stellar defensive plays from short as well. Although I supposeeeeee he did strike out twice, though one was on a questionable called strike three, per Savant. Nobody’s perfect
After Volpe’s dinger, his second of the year, Alex Verdugo doubled and Jose Trevino walked to put the Yankees back in business. Two batters later
I’m perfectly happy to watch Soto do this for the next 15 years, but maybe I’m in the minority.
Verdugo, ditching the high socks, had three hits and a walk, while Giancarlo Stanton went two-for-four with a double and scored two runs against his old team. Trevino reached base twice. Yes, they played the Marlins, but this is the kind of long lineup the team has needed for at least the past two seasons. When the bottom third of the lineup is doing damage, driving runs in, turning it back over for the Sotos and Aaron Judges of the world … that’s what makes for deep playoff runs.
Josh Maciejewski, added to the roster today, made his MLB debut in the ninth inning and recorded his first two outs on just three pitches. Smart move by Aaron Boone — teams usually try to get the new guy into action early, and with a seven-run lead, Maciejewski could pretty much just focus on throwing strikes. He did just that, only needing four pitches—three in the zone—to get his trio of outs and put his debut under his belt.
I’m recapping tomorrow’s contest too, and certainly wouldn’t turn down another Yankees shutout win that only takes a couple hours. Carlos Rodón will look to follow Nestor’s example in his third start of the year, and we’ll be back to the normal 7:05pm Eastern first pitch.
