Nestor Getting Hit a Bad Sign for Yankees

Last night's game was a bad sign. The Yankees sent Nestor Cortes to the mound against the Tampa Bay Rays, and they were hitting his inside pitches. Isaac Paredes and Harold Ramirez hit back-to-back home runs off his inside pitches in the 1st inning. Paredes hit another homer off him in the 3rd. Cortes was taken out in the 5th, and replaced by Clarke Schmidt, and the 1st batter he faced was Paredes, and he hit another homer -- 3 in 1 game.

I guess it was no surprise when Ron Marinaccio hit him with a pitch in the 7th, and he didn't get an additional chance to join the 4-homers-in-a-game club.

But the Yankees simply couldn't get untracked in what was essentially a bullpen game for the Rays. DJ LeMahieu singled home 2 runs in the 2nd inning, but that would be it until the 9th. There was a glimmer of hope that began when Gleyber Torres drew one of those leadoff walks that can kill a team, and advanced to 2nd on a passed ball. But Aaron Hicks' hot streak cooled off at a bad time, and he struck out. Kyle Higashioka, still not hitting well enough to be our starting catcher, grounded to short. But Marwin González hit a home run, and that made it 5-4.

And up to bat came Aaron Judge. And he hit one deep to left. It looked like the game was tied -- for a moment. It didn't quite go far enough, and it was caught at the warning track. Rays 5, Yankees 4. WP: Shawn Armstrong (1-1). SV: Colin Poche (5, and he came within 2 feet of blowing it). LP: Cortes (6-3).

This is a bad sign. We are going to need to beat good teams on the road to win postseason series. And while the Rays are now, probably, too far back to make a legitimate run at the American League Eastern Division title, they can still win a Wild Card slot and become a Yankee postseason series opponent.

Until the Yankees get it done, they are still the 2010-21 Yankees, with echoes of the 2004-08 Yankees -- not the Yankees of 2009, and certainly not the 1996-2003 Yankees.

The series concludes tonight, with Jordan Montgomery starting against Shane Baz. Then, they come home for 4 games against another team that, coming into this season, had a hammer over them: The cheating Houston Astros. Cortes could start the finale on Sunday. Hopefully, he'll learn from this performance, and beat them.