Nestor Cortes seems to thrive on home turf.
Despite the disastrous ending to Friday night’s series opener, a 5-3 loss to the Red Sox in 10 innings at Yankee Stadium, it was a solid outing for the Yankees starting pitcher.
Cortes pitched six innings, allowing just three hits — one a solo homer — and one walk.
He struck out eight batters and lowered his ERA to 3.41.
The left-hander is clearly much more comfortable at home.
“I love to pitch here [Yankee Stadium],” Cortes said after the game. “I love to compete. I know the splits aren’t exactly what I want them to be, but it feels like every time I’m here, there’s that extra atmosphere that goes into my game and I perform.”
He entered Friday’s game — his 10th start at the Stadium — at 4-3 with a 1.84 ERA at home. Across his nine starts on the road, Cortes is 0-4 with a 5.63 ERA.
Yankee Stadium was met with heavy rain and a 38-minute delay going into the bottom of the third. Nevertheless, the interlude had little effect on Cortes despite Romy Gonzalez’s leadoff homer in the fifth.
“I was ready to go regardless of how long the rain delay was,” he said. “I stayed prepared, and I was able to go six.”
Red Sox starting pitcher Tanner Houck, who gave up three runs, one earned, seemed to be more affected by the delay.
Houck gave up two hits and walked four in 3 ¹/₃ innings.
The Yankees’ fourth inning offensive spree was highlighted by Gleyber Torres’ single, Austin Wells’ fielder’s choice that scored Juan Soto, Anthony Volpe’s RBI walk that sent Aaron Judge home and Trent Grisham’s groundout to score Oswaldo Cabrera.
Cortes, however, was robbed of the win when reliever Clay Holmes, entering in the ninth, surrendered a game-tying, two-run homer to Masataka Yoshida and blew the save chance.
“It’s not time to panic,” Cortes said. ”It’s time to trust each other, trust what we have in here and just keep going.”