Nestor Cortes Jr. is famous for many things, but the Yankees star is most popular for his knack for deception. Over the years, the Pinstripes ace proved to be a magician on the mound. And Nasty Nestor made sure to display his antics even as the Yankees played their final Spring Training game.
However, the 2022 All-Star got swayed by his emotions after umpire Randy Rosenberg made the headlines with another controversial call. As a result, Nestor Cortes Jr. took a rather petty route while responding to Rosenberg’s quick pitch call.
Nestor Cortes Jr. chooses to take the petty route after a controversial call by the umpire
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According to the new pitch clock rules, a pitcher must maintain eye contact with the batter before pitching the ball. While pitching to Jeimer Candelario, Cortes, who was starting for the Pinstripes at Nationals Park, fell victim to this new rule. As is visible in the video, Cortes didn’t look at the batter and threw the ball in an attempt to deceive him. However, the umpire was quick to catch on to that and immediately ruled the play dead.
Nestor being Nestor 🤣
First he gets called for a quick pitch… then he takes his sweet time 😅
(via @PitchingNinja)pic.twitter.com/RwzQVQBuCM
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) March 28, 2023
Palpably, Cortes wasn’t happy with the call and reacted by taking much longer to throw the pitch. Making sure that the batter looked in his direction, with six seconds left on the pitch clock, he eventually threw a fire pitch at 93mph, leaving the batter with a smile on his face. “Nestor being Nestor,” said Fox Sports, while hilariously captioning a video of this incident.
While the batsman had a smile on his face, fans didn’t. They believed that this was a rather arrogant and petty reaction, and this is how they reacted:
Man these rules are fucking stupid
— Jose (@jose_briseno620) March 28, 2023
Best pitcher since Babe Ruth
— G (@BenGleib2024) March 28, 2023
Starting Pitchers Put back in Game, for Shot Clock. #FatiguedPitchers
— GO8D__RA @insta @papis_champagne18 (@macias13ms) March 28, 2023
Disaster for the sports.
— YD G (@YDG70624818) March 29, 2023
🤨 arrogante
— Wale “Sin Filtro” (@wcstgo) March 28, 2023
Good pitching is disruption of rhythm
— Light Tower Power (@STRONGallALONG1) March 28, 2023
Am I tripping or is that Randy Rosenberg behind the plate as the ump…
You know, the guy who threw out Realmuto for literally nothing?
— MasterAmerica (@MasterAmerica55) March 28, 2023
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Eventually, the Yankees lost the game to the Nationals 3-0 at Nationals Park.
As the final Spring Training game came to an end, Nestor Cortes Jr. expressed his excitement ahead of Opening Day. He expressed his excitement of watching Volpe on debut and said, “Yankee Stadium is going to be rockin’. Everybody’s going to be excited. I feel like the fans are eager to watch us play, and obviously excited to see Volpe and Judge. It’s going to be a fun time.”
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How do you think will Nasty Nestor fare in the upcoming season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!