BALTIMORE -- Nestor Cortes didn’t mind the heat. The Yankees lefty took the mound with a first-pitch temperature of 97 degrees and just went to work. Cortes gave the Bombers six scoreless innings as they rallied from a bad loss in a sweaty slog Saturday night to beat the Orioles 6-0 at Camden yards.
The Yankees won their second game of their five since the All-Star Break. They clinched the series and finished the season series with Baltimore 11-5. While the Dodgers passed the Yankees for the best record in baseball because of the loss to the Orioles Saturday night, they maintained the best record in the American League. That’s the Bombers goal for the second half of the season, staying ahead of the Astros, to het the home-field advantage in the playoffs.
In his first start after making his first All-Star appearance, Cortes scattered six hits and did not walk a batter. He struck out seven. It was the 15th of his 18 starts this season that he has allowed three earned runs or less, his fifth scoreless outing of the season. It was the second time this season he held the Orioles scoreless.
It was exactly what the Yankees needed after having allowed the Orioles to come back from a three-run deficit and beat them Saturday night.
Aaron Judge crushed his third home run of the series and his major-league leading 37th of the season. His 456-foot, two-run shot in the third inning went well over the remodeled left-field wall that was pushed back 26.5 feet and raised to 13 feet this winter. It was Judge’s seventh home run in the last nine games and his 81st RBI of the season.
Jose Trevino had a career-high for hits, going 4-for-4 with an RBI. He is just the sixth Yankee catcher to have four hits in a game and the first since Gary Sanchez in 2019. Isaiah Kiner-Falefa extended his hitting streak to 12 straight games, tying a season high streak set by DJ LeMahieu, who singled to extend his streak of reaching base in 25 straight starts. LeMahieu’s double drove in the Yankees first run
Clarke Schmidt, called up on Saturday after the Yankees lost Michael King to a fractured elbow on Friday night, gave the Yankees three scoreless innings.
Aaron Hicks, who had two hits, left the game in the top of the ninth inning with an apparent calf injury. In his previous at-bat, Hicks had seemingly tweaked the leg on a big swing as Yankees manager Aaron Boone and a trainer came out to check on him.
