The New York Yankees suffered a heartbreaking 6-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers during Game 1 of the World Series on Friday.

New York took a 3–2 lead in the bottom of the tenth inning with reliever Jake Cousins ​​on the mound. Cousins ​​then recorded a flyout for the first out of the inning, walked the next batter, and then the third batter reached on an infield single.

At this point, Japanese superstar and likely 2024 NL MVP Shohei Ohtani came to bat. Yankees manager Aaron Boone had two lefties (Tim Hill and Nestor Cortes) warmed up in the bullpen to face the lefty Ohtani and ultimately went with Cortes — who hasn’t released a game since September 25th.

Cortes got Ohtani to fly out on the first pitch as the Dodgers runners advanced to second and third. The Yankees then intentionally walked Mookie Betts to bring in Freddie Freeman with the bases loaded.

Cortes threw a first-pitch fastball that Freeman deposited into the right-field bleachers for a grand slam.

An October 26 article by Tyler Kepner of The Athletic quoted Cortes speaking after the game, saying, “(I) felt better than I expected, to be honest,” about his return from injury.

“Throwing the neighborhood, it was really encouraging before my name was called. And once I got in, I had all the confidence in the world,” Cortes continued.

Left-handed hitters hit just .202 against Cortes with just two home runs during the regular season. But regular season stats can often be ignored in postseason situations like these.

“I know (Freeman) is going to be aggressive,” Cortes said, according to Kepner’s article. “I wanted it to be bigger for that reason. I just didn’t make it to the scene. Right off the bat it looked okay, but it just didn’t go high enough.”

The Yankees will look to even the World Series against Los Angeles in a game every Saturday night.