While the San Diego Padres made a bunch of moves at the trade deadline, one of the more unheralded moves was near the end of the deadline, when A.J. Preller acquired Nestor Cortes from the Milwaukee Brewers.
He was injured, but close to returning. With the Padres, Cortes was poised to help bolster a rotation that had struggled and was dealing with injuries to a few key veterans.
But his fourth outing with the team came against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic shared Cortes’s reaction to facing Los Angeles and Freddie Freeman for the first time since surrendering a walk-off grand slam in the World Series.
Cortes Speaks on Facing Freeman
Instead of letting the frustration and emotion get to him, Cortes is accepting of the situation and moving on with his life and career.
“It is what it is,” Cortes said. “It happens in baseball. It sucks that it happened to me, and it happened on the biggest stage of the game. But it’s just another learning experience for me.”
Considering the situation: giving up a walk-off grand slam in game one of the World Series, this mindset is impressive. Cortes was facing the Dodgers for the first time since that moment in the World Series, and while he could let it impact him, he wasn’t.
Instead, he was using it as a learning experience for the next time he faces the Dodgers. He got such an opportunity with the Padres in his fourth start with the team since the trade.
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Cortes went six innings of shutout baseball, giving up just one hit and striking out three in a win over the Dodgers. He retired Freeman and Mookie Betts two times, and Shohei Ohtani three times, in his best outing since being traded to San Diego.
This outing against the Dodgers doesn’t erase his World Series performance, but it’s a sign he’s moving past it. He got the chance to overcome that performance, if only slightly, and took advantage of it.
“But the thing about this game is you always have opportunities to redeem yourself,” Cortes said. “Here I am with a chance to redeem myself again.”
It was a great outing for Cortes, as he’s moving past his World Series moment and proving he has the wherewithal to do so. His impressive outing against the Dodgers was huge for the Padres and for Cortes to move forward in his big league career.
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