Tim Hill’s success makes Aaron Boone’s Nestor Cortes decision look worse
LOS ANGELES — A day late and a dollar short.
The Yankees brought in lefty Tim Hill in the bottom of the fifth inning on Saturday after going with Nestor Cortes in the 10th inning of Friday’s Game 1 of the World Series that ended with Freddie Freeman’s historic grand slam.
The results in Saturday’s 4-2 Game 2 loss only made Friday’s decision look worse, as the side-arming lefty Hill came in and got Game 1 hero Freeman to pop to short and then got Tommy Edman — who had homered and doubled earlier in Game 2 — looking to end the fifth with the Yankees trailing by three runs.
Hill retired all four batters he faced — including the first two in the sixth — before being removed for Clay Holmes.
It was another example of the journeyman Hill, who the Yankees picked up from the moribund White Sox earlier in the year, getting batters out — which is something Cortes hadn’t done in 37 days before he came into Game 1 after missing over a month with an elbow injury.
“Nestor I’m good with,” Aaron Boone said of his Friday decision, in which he opted for Cortes over Hill.
The manager noted that with one out in the 10th in Game 1, he wanted Cortes because he wanted a better chance at a strikeout with two runners on base, the tying run on second and go-ahead run on first.
If there were two outs, he would have gone with Hill, who pitches more to contact.
“Even after the fact, I feel like that [Cortes decision] was the right move with one out,” Boone said.
Perhaps, but it didn’t look good Saturday.
Hill has allowed just one earned run in seven postseason innings this year, with six hits, a walk and three strikeouts.
Hill declined to hypothesize how he would have done if given the chance to pitch Friday.
“You can’t think like that,’’ Hill said.
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Of the postgame controversy, Hill said, “I try not to concern myself with that kind of talk. It’s just a distraction. There are a lot of distractions. I fully believe in Boone and every decision he makes. When it’s not my turn, it’s not my turn. … My job is to throw the ball. He decides when and where.”
As for Cortes, the lefty said he’d be ready to pitch again whenever called upon after allowing the game-winning grand slam to Freeman in Game 1 and that the Yankees are confident his elbow is OK.
Still, pitching coach Matt Blake acknowledged he was worried about Cortes’ mindset — at least to a degree — after he allowed one of the biggest gut-punch home runs in franchise history.
“I am a little bit, but maybe with him less than others,’’ Blake said prior to Game 2 at Dodger Stadium. “He’s resilient and he seemed pretty good [Saturday] and I know he felt good, so we’ll see.”
