Yankees' Gerrit Cole, Nestor Cortes, Clay Holmes and Jose Trevino named All-Stars

BOSTON — The Yankees have an MLB-high six players headed to Los Angeles for next week’s All-Star Game, with the possibility of one or two additions in the days to come.

 Gerrit Cole, Nestor Cortes, Clay Holmes and Jose Trevino were named to the American League club on Sunday. They'll join Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, who were voted into the starting lineup by fans.  

Michael King and Wandy Peralta, two standouts in what has been one of MLB's best bullpens, will get strong consideration if any pitchers are unable to go to the All-Star Game, which usually is the case. The same goes for Anthony Rizzo when it comes to position players.

Stanton and Cole are headed to the All-Star Game for the fifth time and  Judge is going to his fourth, but the Yankees seemed most excited for  first-timers Trevino, Cortes and Holmes.  

“Story keeps getting better,” Cole said of Cortes, essentially a come-from-nowhere story, though that process started in the second half of last season when he became a permanent member of the rotation. “I’d say it’s like the cherry on top of the sundae, but I feel he’s still adding ice cream to it.”

That's the same Cortes who asked Aaron Boone during spring training if the manager thought he had a decent chance to stick with the club.

Boone’s answer?

“You’re going to the All-Star Game this year.”

“To be able to say that now, three months later, to him was really neat,” Boone said before Sunday’s game. “The legend of Nestor Cortes rolls on to Hollywood now.”

Said Cortes: “I wanted to believe it when he said it [in spring training]. I didn’t know it was going to be real. I’m happy that he was able to have confidence in me since the beginning.”

In his own way, Trevino is another out-of-nowhere story. The catcher, acquired from Texas late in spring training after backup catcher Ben Rortvedt suffered a strained  oblique — which he still hasn’t recovered from — arrived with little fanfare. By May, he had supplanted starting catcher Kyle Higashioka because of his excellent defensive skills and some surprising work with his bat.

“Thank you to the people who believed in me, that stuck with me,” Trevino said. “I’ve said this before, I’m out to prove the people who believed in me right. Not trying to prove anybody wrong anymore, just trying to prove everyone who believed in me right. I’m very thankful.” 

Catch us if you can

Each game in the Yankees' weekend series against the Red Sox followed a similar pattern: The Yankees took a quick lead and then tried to hold off the Red Sox. Twice they were successful. Twice they were not. 

In the first game, the Yankees went ahead 5-0 in the top of the third on a two-out grand slam by Josh Donaldson and a homer by Aaron Hicks on the next pitch. But Rafael Devers drove in five runs with a pair of homers against Cole, and the Yankees barely held on for a 6-5 win.

In the second game, the Yankees took a 9-2 lead in the top of the fourth but saw it cut to 9-5 in the sixth. They escaped several jams when one swing could have tied it before earning a 12-5 win.

In the third game, the Yankees took 3-1 and 5-3 leads but blew two saves and lost in 10 innings, 6-5.

In the fourth game Sunday night, the Yankees took early 4-0 and 6-2 leads, helped by two-run homers by Giancarlo Stanton and Matt Carpenter, but fell apart after that in an 11-6 loss.