Yankees Pitcher on 2024 World Series vs Dodgers: ‘We Were the Better Team’
With the Los Angeles Dodgers down to their final out, trailing 3-2 in the 10th inning, Game 1 of the World Series looked as if it belonged to the New York Yankees.
Then, the impossible happened.
Freddie Freeman sent a four-seam fastball 412 feet away and into baseball lore for eternity.
The pitcher on the wrong end of the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history, Nestor Cortes, still seems to rightfully carry some resentment from that infamously unfortunate moment of his career.
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Cortes was promptly traded this offseason for two-time All-Star Devin Williams, three days after his birthday. He is looking to start the next chapter of his baseball life as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers.
The southpaw spoke to the Athletic’s Tyler Kepner about what transpired last October and is still holding onto the belief that New York were the better team in the World Series.
“We had done enough to win that game,” Cortes said. “They can talk whatever they want to talk, but we win Game 1 — which we should have — we lost 2 and 3, we win Game 4 and we should have won Game 5. Then we go back to L.A. up 3 to 2.
“So people can say it slipped away from us, people can say we made a lot of mistakes, which we did. But at the end of the day, we were the better team. I see it that way, and I’m sure everybody in that clubhouse sees it that way. The reality (could have been) going back to LA leading 3-2. It didn’t happen that way and they deserve all the credit in the world, they won the World Series. At the moment, they showed they were the better team.”
Baseball is a game made up of numerous moments that all come together over the course of nine (and sometimes a few more) innings. One player or one moment can sometimes dictate how a game ends, or as we saw in October, leading to how a season ends.
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The game of hypotheticals can be played all season long about how the World Series could have gone, but all the baseball world has is what actually happened and the moments the Dodgers won with their talented organization.
As the quest to become baseball’s first back-to-back champions in a quarter-century gets underway, Los Angeles hopes to have the team that will win the battle of key moments once again, and raise the commisioner’s trophy once more.
Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
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I’d say both teams had the opportunity to win the WS. I’m glad the Dodgers won. In 88 the Dodgers beat a superior team. Not a better team, a superior team.
Plus, The DODGERS, in ‘88, Beat the Mets, who had beaten the DODGERS 10 out of 11 Games in the Regular Season, in the NLCS, Before Beating the “Unbeatable” Oakland A’s in the World Series. Along with Orel Hershiser, the DODGERS had Timely Hitting (Gibson), before the World Series, Scioscia in the NLCS. The 1988 DODGERS, were a Team of DESTINY!!!
The 2024 DODGERS were the BETTER TEAM, PERIOD!!!
The team that finds a way to win is ALWAYS the better team. should of, could of, would of, are excuses for losers. Nestor they got rid of you because you groved the first pitch and blew the game. It happens. But the Dodogers came from behind many times. to win. They had many pitchers on the DL and still beat the mighty yankees. If you choke like you did, you are NOT the better team. Quit crying. you got 2nd place, not too bad but no one will remember who got 2nd.
Some people just don’t know when shut up. What a dumb thing to say.
What an odd thing to say. I’m assuming he was there for the whole Series.
sounds like sour grapes to me… A loser who can’t except the lose..
And now, coming to us from the blah blah circuit, is….
What a loser. You don’t get an asterisk in losing championships.
You win, you win, PERIOD.
If the Yankees were the better team, why didn’t they win then? It wasn’t even close, 4 games to 1.
“We were the better team” followed closely by “they showed they were the better team” says all you need to know about Nestor Cortes’ intellect.