Yep definitely some positives for why to bring in Cortes; he also had good #'s against that lineup, but for me the biggest no no is not only the guy hadnt pitched in 40 days, he's a starter. Never been a reliever, he's also HIGHLY emotional and is 100% guided by routine. if his routine is off just a bit, he has a bad night. So he's coming in cold, and his routine is completely broken, in the most critical part of a game in the world series, it was set up for failure and to walk the bases loaded? Big no no. I was chatting with my buddy Felix who pitched at NC state but grew up with Nestor and his brother, said the same thing, Nestor cant close a door at home, he aint closing a baseball game, and he certainly is not a reliever. I just had to laugh.
Funny thing about that Little league team I played with Clayton on....it was called the Carrboro (NC) Yankees. On that team, I was Catcher, Brian Roberts was SS (longtime Oriole+Yankee and all star--son of UNC coach Mike Roberts), Clayton at 2B--he later was the standout catcher at ECU and in the minors, with clay's mom as coach. We went undefeated 12-0, and had a blast as kids. was looking at our team picture the other day and its amazing how much we've changed in 35 some years but still look the same in some ways. Crazy watching those 2 make it in a big way from Chapel Hill/Carrboro. Always good to see friends and good people make it big.