Nestor Cortes is known for his tricky moves when on the mound, but he may have gone too far on Sunday.
Cortes was pitching Sunday for his New York Yankees against the Guardians at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio. The game was scoreless and Cortes had Andres Gimenez 0-2 with two outs in the bottom of the second inning.
Working from a windup, Cortes dragged his leg to elongate his motion in an attempt to throw off Gimenez’s timing. Cortes even mixed in a fake pitch before throwing his actual pitch.
Nestor with the fake pitch in the middle of his wind-up 💀 pic.twitter.com/WB60nDiN3H
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) April 14, 2024
Gimenez fouled off that pitch and then reached on an error the next pitch.
Though there is nothing presently in the rules that would make what Cortes did illegal, many people wondered why not and felt that sort of deception attempt should be outlawed. Until that point comes, expect Cortes to continue pushing the boundaries of what he can on the mound. He’s been doing this sort of thing for a while.
Cortes allowed four runs in four innings and took a no-decision as his Yankees lost 8-7.
