The Judge has delivered his verdict in resounding fashion.
Milwaukee Brewers’ newly acquired starting pitcher Nestor Cortes exited Saturday’s game with bellowing cheers from fans at Yankee Stadium in his return to the ‘Big Apple’, playing his former team.
They were thanking him for his subpar performance against their team on Saturday in his first start of the season as the Yankees knocked him around like Mike Tyson in the ring.
On the other side of the equation, Brewers’ fans back home in Milwaukee were not impressed with his performance in the slightest.
Cortes was making his debut for the Brewers after being a part of a trade with the Yankees for All-Star closer Devin Williams. It went about as bad as anyone could expect for Cortes.
First pitch to lead-off batter Paul Goldschmidt, home run. First pitch to second batter Cody Bellinger, home run. First pitch to third batter Aaron Judge, home run.
His first three pitches of his Brewers career were hammered for home runs. Austin Wells added another solo shot in the first inning. It was the second straight game that the Brewers’ starting pitcher has surrendered a lead-off home run to the ‘Bronx Bombers’, who led MLB in long balls in 2024.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe massacre did not let up in the second inning, either. After the Brewers sliced three runs off the lead, trailing by only one, 4-3, Anthony Volpe continued the Yankees’ home run barrage with a three-run blast.
Cortes lasted just one more batter before being lifted in the third inning after allowing a walk. His final stat line was atrocious: eight earned runs, six hits, five of which were home runs, and five walks.
Newcomer Connor Thomas relieved him. And things did not get any better. In his MLB debut, he also gave up a partridge in a pear tree, allowing eight runs on six hits and three more home runs in two innings. The score was 16-4, with the game already out of hand, when his time was up after the fourth inning.
Two of the three long balls he surrendered were to the three-time AL MVP Judge, who has a home run hat trick with a solo home run, a grand slam and two-run homer on his stat line so far this season. Judge is the reigning home run champ after belting an unbelievable 58 long balls in 2024.
The eight home runs by the Yankees through four innings have already tied a franchise record. And they set the franchise mark in the seventh inning on Oswald Peraza’s two-run jack to make it 20-6. The good news, if there was any from this game, is that the Brewers put plenty of offense on the board themselves, scoring nine runs. But they still lost by 11 runs, 20-9.
