Nestor Cortes immaculate, but Yankees' bats aren't in shutout loss to Orioles

BALTIMORE — What a shame.

Shameful, too.

Nestor Cortes struck out a career-high 12 in five innings-plus, allowing no runs and three hits, but the Yankees’ bats completely flushed the effort by getting nothing going in an embarrassing 5-0 loss to the Orioles on Sunday afternoon in front of 25,938 at Camden Yards.

Baltimore  scored five runs with two outs in the eighth inning and took two of three from the Yankees (5-5), allowing only six runs in 29 innings. The Orioles, who entered the series 1-5, aren’t expected to be dramatically better than the outfit that went 52-110 last season (and still managed to give the Yankees fits, going 8-11 against them).  

“We’ve got to respond,” said Aaron Judge, who walked in the first inning to extend his on-base streak in games he’s started to nine but otherwise was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. “Can’t sit here and mope about it. We got punched in the face today, losing a series here in Baltimore. None of us are happy about that or happy about our performance. We just all have to pick it up collectively, individually. Everybody pick it up, do their job, and get back to it in Detroit.”

Pinch hitter Rougned Odor, a Yankee last season, snapped a scoreless tie with two outs in the eighth with a two-run single off Jonathan Loaisiga.

Loaisiga allowed a  leadoff single by Ryan Mountcastle and walked Trey Mancini with none out, then issued a two-out walk to Robinson Chirinos to load the bases before Odor's hard ground single up the middle.

“The walks definitely were not doing me any favors,” Loaisiga  said through his interpreter. “You make it into a long inning.”

It got longer. In came lefty Lucas Luetge, who allowed a two-run double by Kelvin Gutierrez and an RBI single by Jorge Mateo to make it 5-0.

Jorge Lopez, the fourth pitcher of the day for a Baltimore pitching staff that is suspect to say the least, pitched a second scoreless inning in the ninth. The Yankees finished with four hits, none after Aaron Hicks’ one-out single in the fifth.

“I just think ultimately we’re made up a little bit differently,” Aaron Boone said of why he’s convinced this year’s offense will perform better than last year’s woefully inconsistent unit. “We have a few guys that are swinging it pretty well and off to pretty good starts. But I’m going to bet on the track record of a few other guys that are going to have the kind of seasons we’re used to . . . I don’t get too emotional over a few games where you could start beating the drum a certain way. I am confident this offense will be what [it] should be. But we’ve got to get rolling.”

Orioles lefty starter Bruce Zimmermann rolled Sunday, allowing four hits and two walks with six strikeouts in five innings. Singles by DJ LeMahieu and Kyle  Higashioka put runners on first and third with one out in the fourth, but Isiah Kiner-Falefa grounded into a double play and the Yankees did not threaten again.

Cortes, who threw 4 1/3 scoreless innings in his first start against a potent Blue Jays lineup, was nearly unhittable Sunday. He recorded an immaculate inning in the fourth, striking out  Anthony Santander, Ryan McKenna and  Chirinos on nine pitches. Michael King and Chad Green each accomplished the feat last year and Dellin Betances did it  in 2017.

After Cortes' ninth straight strike ended the inning, Higashioka flipped the ball into the stands. Gerrit Cole negotiated an exchange of baseballs with the fan who caught it, and Higashioka took quite a bit of good-natured heat from his teammates. 

At one point, Cortes struck out six straight batters, starting with Mountcastle for the second out of the third and continuing through Chris Owings for the first out of the fifth.

But  Cortes’ effort, among the most dominant performances by a Yankees starter in some time, was wasted by an offense that gave itself few scoring opportunities, going 1-for-3 with runners in scoring position and stranding seven. The 2-3-4 hitters — Judge, Josh Donaldson and Giancarlo Stanton — went 0-for-11 with six strikeouts.

“As a pitcher, it’s kind of frustrating,” Cortes said of putting up zero after zero and watching his offense do the same. “But at the same time, I could easily be on the other side and give up five, give up six and offense be there that day. These hitters come out every day and do their job and try to get as many hits as possible. Today just wasn’t the day.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.