The Dodgers had been the final season.
Proper?
They’d the perfect total file in the course of the common season, then stormed via the postseason earlier than by a relatively convincing margin of 4 video games to at least one.
However there’s no less than one one that isn’t satisfied that the had been even the perfect group in that collection. And he’s satisfied that others aren’t satisfied as nicely.
Maybe not surprisingly, that individual was a member of the 2024 Yankees. It’s Néstor Cortés, who pitched for New York in 2019 and 2021-2024 earlier than being traded to the Milwaukee Brewers in the course of the offseason.
Talking from spring coaching about , Cortés advised the Athletic of the Yankees, “.”
Throughout the identical quote, nonetheless, Cortés additionally mentioned of the Dodgers, “In the mean time, they confirmed they had been the higher group.”
Clearly, some context is required.
Cortés was primarily a beginning pitcher during the last 4 seasons however got here out of the bullpen in the course of the World Collection after lacking the earlier rounds of the postseason due to an elbow harm. The left-hander will most probably be remembered in L.A. because the man who gave up a within the backside of the tenth inning of Recreation 1, turning a 3-2 Yankees lead right into a .
After , Cortés made his closing look with New York within the fourth and fifth innings of Recreation 3, dealing with 5 hitters and permitting no runs and no hits with one strikeout.
however , then constructed an early 5-0 lead in Recreation 5. However the Yankees — particularly, , permitting the Dodgers to tie the rating on their method to a .
Former Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly, who didn’t play within the postseason due to an harm, acknowledged in an interview days later that the collection “” and that the Yankees could be thought-about the “eighth- or ninth-best playoff group” from final fall.
All of which led to this evaluation by Cortés months later:
“They’ll speak no matter they wish to speak, however we win Recreation 1 — which we must always have — we misplaced [Games] 2 and three, we win Recreation 4 and we must always have received Recreation 5. Then we return to L.A. up three to 2.
“So folks can say it slipped away from us, folks can say we made a variety of errors, which we did. However on the finish of the day, we had been the higher group. I see it that approach, and I’m certain everyone in that clubhouse sees it that approach. The truth [could have been] going again to L.A. main 3-2.”
However, he added, “it didn’t occur that approach they usually deserve all of the credit score on this planet, . In the mean time, they confirmed they had been the higher group.”
So the Dodgers had been the higher group at one specific second — which simply occurred to be the World Collection — however the Yankees really had been the superior group within the grand scheme of issues?
Cortés may need a tough time convincing anybody in L.A. that’s the case.
