MILWAUKEE -- For Nestor Cortes and the Brewers, this was more like it.
Torpedoed by the Yankees and their unique bats five days earlier in a forgettable Brewers debut, Cortes was in complete command for six innings against slumping Cincinnati on Thursday, leading Milwaukee to its third consecutive victory, 1-0, at American Family Field.
The win put the Reds alongside the 1960 Phillies as the only teams in the Live Ball Era (since 1920) to lose three consecutive games by that score.
Cortes started his 86-pitch outing with Ball 1 and wound up walking Reds leadoff man TJ Friedl. But even that marked a much better start to the game than on Saturday at Yankee Stadium, where Cortes became the first pitcher on record to surrender home runs on each of his first three pitches of a game.
“It was pretty bad. I mean, it was embarrassing what happened to me last time,” Cortes said. “I think as a starter you’ve got 30-32 of these, and there’s going to be a lot of bad ones along the way and you just have to learn how to brush them off and go to the next one.”
It turned into a scoreless first inning and then five more for Cortes, who walked two batters and allowed only one hit, a harmless Jose Trevino double with one out in the third. Cortes struck out six batters in all, with at least one strikeout in each of his innings aside from a 1-2-3 fifth, and handed a 1-0 lead to the Brewers’ bullpen after lowering his ERA from 36.00 at the start of the day to 9.00 by night’s end.
For the second straight start, Cortes knew the opponent had inside information about his plan of attack. Last time, he was facing a whole team of familiar faces, since Cortes spent the previous four seasons with the Yankees. This time, he was focused on one Red: Trevino, the Cincinnati catcher and a fellow former Yankee.
“I told myself [the Yankees] know who I am and what I do, and forget about it. That’s not who I am,” Cortes said. “Today, Trevino is over there and he knows me, he’s caught me a lot and he’s probably giving them scouting reports, so I knew I had to switch it up a little bit. I think the good mix that we had today was spot on.”
“You could tell as he got into the game ... his tempo picked up, his pitches were a little more crisp,” Reds manager Terry Francona said. “He was gaining confidence. That’s what good pitchers do.”
The Brewers knew they’d see that version of “Nasty Nestor” eventually. They gave up All-Star closer Devin Williams in the December trade that landed Cortes and infield prospect Caleb Durbin from the Yankees.
“I don’t think it was a surprise to anybody,” said Brewers right fielder Sal Frelick. “He’s handled himself like a pro this whole week after his last outing. He stayed positive, didn’t change who he was and was ready to compete tonight.”
The Brewers’ only run was unearned against Reds starter Nick Lodolo, who fumbled a feed from first baseman Christian Encarnacion-Strand in the fourth inning for an error that set up Frelick’s run-scoring single. Frelick, who grew up playing hockey in Boston, was a fitting hero for the Brewers on hockey night at the ballpark.
“Look at his jersey, you can never tell what number he is because he’s got mud all over his jersey every night,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said of Frelick. “He plays the game the right way. He’s tenacious. That’s the kind of stuff that makes a team like ours go.”
It was that kind of night, from Cortes getting the job done with a fastball that maxed out at 92.3 mph and three relievers completing the shutout on a night some of the Brewers’ main bullpen arms, including closer Trevor Megill, were unavailable due to recent usage.
The Brewers turned to Elvis Peguero, Bryan Hudson and Joel Payamps (first save) to finish Milwaukee’s second shutout victory in the last three days. That extended the Reds’ scoreless streak to 28 innings and counting.
Whether Cortes makes his next start as scheduled depends on Mother Nature. Cortes’ wife, Alondra, is due to give birth to the couple’s next child any day now in Miami, and he’s been on high alert for the past two weeks.
“I’m really excited for that, to be honest,” Cortes said. “Hopefully it’s soon.”