Nestor Cortes struggles on road again as Yankees lose

TORONTO — The Yankees got a glimpse of life without Juan Soto during a rough home series against the Dodgers earlier this month, when the outfielder missed three games with a sore right forearm. They can only hope his current absence will be shorter in duration.

With Soto watching from the bench, his injured right hand hidden by the pocket of a hooded sweatshirt, New York lost for the 10th time in 13 games. Nestor Cortes allowed three early runs before the bullpen opened the floodgates, with the Bombers falling 9-3 to the Blue Jays on Saturday afternoon at Rogers Centre.

“It’s easy when we have our best stuff,” Cortes said. “These are the starts that you’ve got to get through, control damage as much as possible and get ready for the next one.”

Yankees manager Aaron Boone said that X-rays taken on Saturday came back clean, but Soto might not return to the lineup for Sunday’s series finale and could have further testing performed during Monday’s off-day in New York.

“It’s concerning,” Boone said. “He’s got some swelling in there, and swinging didn’t go real well today. Hopefully, that’s just banging the hand and having some inflammation in there. Hopefully we can get that out of there and it’s not too big a thing, but we’ll see.”

Without Soto, the Yanks were mostly silenced by Chris Bassitt, despite a 101.6 mph Aaron Judge liner that struck the right-hander’s pitching arm in the first inning.

Bassitt remained in the game, holding New York to an unearned run on six hits over six innings, striking out eight with two walks.

“Whatever he did today, he deserved it,” Cortes said. “He pitched a really good game. When I saw it in the first inning, you can see it from the dugout, the bump that he had on his forearm. It was just ballsy by him, going out there and competing the way he did.”

Judge picked up his Major League-leading 80th RBI with a run-scoring single in the fifth inning, and Austin Wells hit a two-run homer in the ninth.

“We didn’t cash in great,” Boone said. “I thought we were hitting balls on the nose, getting guys on base. We just couldn’t drive them home.”

The start was a grind for Cortes, who remained winless on the road this season, falling to 0-4 with a 5.63 ERA in nine starts away from Yankee Stadium. Cortes is 4-3 with a 1.84 ERA in nine starts at home.

“It’s been early damage and trying to contain the offense that we’re facing,” Cortes said. “I think once we do that and contain them a little bit in the first three innings, we’ll have a better shot at winning games and being better for our pitching staff.”

Otherwise, it was the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Show. Guerrero drove in six runs, including a two-run homer in the first inning off Cortes and a bases-clearing double facing Caleb Ferguson in the sixth. Toronto sent 10 men to the plate in the sixth inning, with Phil Bickford allowing five of the seven batters he faced to reach base.

Guerrero, who famously said in 2022 that he would never sign with the Yankees — “Not even dead,” he said — softened that stance in a recent interview, during which he acknowledged that “this is a business” and that he would be “happy to help any team.”

Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins has said it “doesn’t make any sense” to trade Guerrero, who is under contract through 2025. It is believed that Guerrero’s dislike of the Yankees stems from the 2003-04 offseason, when the Yanks signed free agent Gary Sheffield instead of Vladimir Guerrero Sr.

This series has been quite a showcase for the 25-year-old Guerrero. He has homered in each of the three games, and including Saturday’s 3-for-5 performance, he has thumped Yankees pitching for seven hits in 15 at-bats (.467) with 10 RBIs.

“He’s on a tear. He looks really good,” said Wells. “He’s covering both sides of the plate. So when you’re game planning for one of the better hitters in the league, you just kind of hope to find spots where he’s not looking.”