Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
NEW YORK — Nestor Cortes was slated to start out Wednesday towards the Baltimore Orioles because the New York Yankees look to clinch the AL East title with a win. Instead, the left-hander will endure an MRI on his elbow, in line with two folks with data of the state of affairs.
It's an alarming improvement 10 days earlier than the Yankees are scheduled to start postseason play.
The Yankees may flip to Marcus Stroman, who just lately shifted to the bullpen, or Cody Poteet to start out in Cortes' place Wednesday. Stroman final pitched eight days in the past, throwing three innings in his first and solely aid look this season. The Yankees would want to create a spot on the energetic roster for Poteet, who was just lately activated from the 60-day injured checklist and despatched to Triple-A.
Cortes' current efficiency didn't recommend he is been coping with any elbow hassle. Beginning with a short demotion to reliever, Cortes has given up one run with 18 strikeouts in 15⅓ innings over his previous three outings.
The stretch started with Cortes tossing 4⅓ hitless innings in his first aid look of the season towards the Chicago Cubs — and afterward sharing his frustration with transferring to the bullpen. He returned to the rotation 5 days later, limiting the Boston Red Sox to 1 run with 9 strikeouts throughout 5 innings. On Sept. 18, he held the Seattle Mariners to 4 hits over six scoreless innings.
Cortes, 29, has a 3.77 ERA throughout a team-leading 174⅓ innings pitched. He has made 30 begins however is anticipated to return to the bullpen for the playoffs.
The Yankees have, for essentially the most half, benefited from good damage luck in current weeks. Clarke Schmidt, Anthony Rizzo, Jon Berti, Ian Hamilton and Luis Gil even have been reinstated from the injured checklist since Sept. 1. The reinforcements made the Yankees extra complete than simply about some other membership in baseball.
It additionally gave the Yankees an issue groups would like to have down the stretch: Six wholesome succesful beginning pitchers for 5 spots. The surplus prompted the Yankees to maneuver Cortes to the bullpen for one rotation flip earlier than switching Stroman with him for the previous two turns.
Now that surplus may take successful.
