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Yankees Pummel Former Teammate Nestor Cortes With Three Homers on First Three Pitches

Cortes gave up a fourth home run to Austin Wells later in the inning as well.

Josh Wilson

Cortes pitched for the Yankees for five total seasons
Cortes pitched for the Yankees for five total seasons / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
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After winning Opening Day at home, the New York Yankees had something even better in store for its home fans for their second game of the year. New York slugged three home runs on the first three pitches they saw, jumping out to a very early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Before the inning was over, a fourth would be added.

To make it even sweeter? The starting pitcher Saturday was Nestor Cortes, who spent the last four years pitching for the Yankees, signing with the Milwaukee Brewers over the offseason (Cortes also pitched in 33 games for the Yankees in 2019).

It was the first time in franchise history that the Yankees hit four home runs in the first inning, according to YES Network's research that play-by-play announcer Michael Kay relayed.

Here are all three home runs from Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge:

Cortes then got two straight outs, but gave up a fourth home run to catcher Austin Wells. He walked Pablo Reyes and Jasson Dominguez. The medical staff consulted him after the second walk. Cortes stayed in to strike out Trent Grisham for a third out.

With eight innings left, there's still plenty of time as of this writing for the Brewers to battle back into it.

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Josh Wilson
JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.

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