Nasty Nestor gets real weird with windup to strike out Devers

Parts of this story were excerpted from Bryan Hoch's Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Warren Spahn once said: "Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing." So we think Spahn would appreciate the ridiculous mid-windup tomfoolery Yankees lefty Nestor Cortes busted out Wednesday night against Rafael Devers at Fenway Park during New York's 5-3 win.

Devers, as you are probably well aware, is a very good hitter. This is especially true when he's playing in the storied Rivalry, as he entered Wednesday night with 19 home runs -- remember this one -- against New York during his career. Cortes, who of course is also aware of Devers' skills as a hitter, turned to what YES broadcaster David Cone dubbed "improv theater" with a 2-2 count in the fourth inning of a scoreless game.

Cortes started his windup as usual, went to his usual leg kick, then -- Cone called it a "dipsy doodle," so we'll say he dipsy doodled -- before delivering a fastball on the outside of the plate.

“I will be honest, I almost fell over,” Cortes said. “But as I was going down, I said, ‘I have to let go of this pitch right now.’ If not, I wasn’t going to be able to make it. I was just happy it was a competitive pitch.”

Devers, clearly flummoxed, flailed at the ball with his bat but came nowhere close and headed back to the bench after striking out.

“He’d fought off a lot of good pitches,” Cortes said. “I felt like I didn’t want to lay off the heater, and I had to do something with him. Right after that foul ball, I said, ‘I think I’m going to do something here.’ As soon as I lifted up my leg, all hell broke loose.”

Catcher Jose Trevino said that even home-plate umpire Nick Mahrley was fooled by Cortes’ wiggle, exclaiming, “Oh!”

“He thought he was going to fall over, but I was like, ‘Oh, no, it’s part of it,’” Trevino said. “Usually you know when he’s going to do it, you see him feel it a little bit. But tonight was one that caught me off guard.”

That was true for the Yankees’ bench as well. As Cortes returned to the dugout, first baseman Anthony Rizzo cornered him and said, with a big grin: “Guy, what are you doing out there?”

“He hasn’t broken it out a ton in the last 10 or 15 starts, but he started into it there,” manager Aaron Boone said. “It worked out pretty well for him.”

Now, this was not the first time Cortes has gotten a bit weird with his delivery on the mound. Just ask Shohei Ohtani, who last year couldn't keep from laughing when Cortes started doing whatever this was in the video below:

If there’s any complaint about Cortes’ odd deliveries, it’s that he isn’t using them enough. Perhaps the postseason will bring out the funk.

“It’s something that’s part of my game,” Cortes said. “It’s something I’ve done all year. I’ve shied away from it a little bit, but I think it still plays up. I’m happy it worked out.”