Cortes works perfecto for 6 1/3 innings

Nestor Cortes had an 0.79 ERA with Class A Charleston before a promotion to Class A Advanced Tampa. After a rough start on Aug. 8 in Clearwater, he changed his approach in an attempt to recreate his early-season magic.

If Friday's start is any indication, those changes are here to stay.

The Yankees prospect retired the first 19 batters before allowing two hits while striking out nine over seven innings as Tampa blanked Brevard County, 11-0.

The nine punchouts were his highest total since the July 22 promotion.

"You just have to learn how to pitch backwards," said the Florida native, who did not walk a batter. "I was keeping them off-balance first and finishing them with the fastball. Mostly everything [was working]; [I threw my] fastball for strikes [and was] able to keep them off-balance with off-speed. Everything was well-located."

Cortes (4-1) struck out the side in the second and reached a three-ball count on three batters all night. His toughest inning was the seventh, when Mitch Ghelfi laced a one-out double to right field after Cortes struck out Brewers No. 3 prospect Corey Ray for the second time.

Blake Allemand singled to left to put runners on first and third with one out, but Cortes got Elvis Rubio, to hit into a double play. He threw 55 of 82 pitches for strikes.

"It was kind of special to have a perfect game through six, but once it was broken, I just told myself to calm down," Cortes said. "With men on first on first and third, I was asking for a double play and that's exactly what I got [on a] changeup down in the zone. I was looking to get the batter to turn over the pitch, and that's exactly what happened."

The nine strikeouts were the second-highest total Cortes has racked up in a start this season; he whiffed 12 in six innings on May 19 against Columbia, when he took a no-hitter into the sixth. He fanned at least one batter in six of his seven frames Friday.

"I'm not an overpowering pitcher, but my fastball was good, velocity-wise," the 2013 36th-round pick said. "It was pretty neat, using it late in the count and locating it allowed me to rack up all the K's."

Coming in, Cortes had made four appearances with Tampa, one of which was a start -- a two-inning, five-run struggle 11 days earlier. In his three other outings, he allowed four runs -- three earned -- over 14 innings. The eight earned runs he's given up with Tampa are two more than he yielded in 68 1/3 frames with the RiverDogs, and he said he's noticed a definite difference in competition between the two levels.

"The strike zone definitely is a little tighter, but the difference to me was the hitters are smarter," Cortes said. "They don't swing at bad pitches, and they have a game plan for you every time they face you. Players start to get smarter, so you've got to change your way of pitching sometimes so you can succeed.

"I took the good and the bad from [the outing in Clearwater]. The bad was that I threw too many bad pitches to them -- to a team that could hit. The good thing is that I didn't allow any walks. Sometimes you've got to keep the ball down and throw in and out, back and forth, just so you can change their eye level. When that happened, I kind of worked with pitching coach [Tim Norton] and he told me you got to throw a little different pitches in different situaitions."

Cortes hasn't walked more than one batter in a game since July 1, and his teammates gave him plenty of run support. Tampa's 19 hits were a season high.

Devyn Bolasky went 4-for-5 with three RBIs to lead the charge, while Yankees No. 2 and 3 prospects Gleyber Torres and Jorge Mateo each added three hits. Mateo scored twice and is batting .421 (16-for-38) in his last nine games, while Torres reached four times and enjoyed his second three-hit game since being acquired from the Cubs as part of the package for Aroldis Chapman on July 25.

Rashad Crawford, another piece of that deal, went 2-for-4 with a homer, two RBIs and two walks.

"It's amazing. All you ask for as a pitcher is some run support," Cortes said. "They did a very good job today of giving me that luxury and comfort, even though your mindset as a pitcher is to keep attacking and throw a good baseball."

Brewers No. 12 prospect Marcos Diplan (1-2) allowed five runs on seven hits and three walks with three strikeouts over five innings.