Nestor Cortes says Yankees were ‘the better team’ in 2024 World Series vs. Dodgers

In the 2024 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees, the better team lost — at least that’s what former Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes believes.

Cortes, who was traded from the Yankees to the Milwaukee Brewers in December, recently spoke with The Athletic and said that not only did New York deserve to win Game 1 — which ended with Freddie Freeman hitting a walk-off grand slam off of Cortes — but that they should have won the series in six games.

“We had done enough to win that game,” Cortes said. “They can talk whatever they want to talk, but we win Game 1 — which we should have — we lost 2 and 3, we win Game 4 and we should have won Game 5. Then we go back to LA up 3 to 2.

“So people can say it slipped away from us, people can say we made a lot of mistakes, which we did. But at the end of the day, we were the better team. I see it that way, and I’m sure everybody in that clubhouse sees it that way. “The reality (could have been) going back to LA leading 3-2.”

But Cortes also gave the Dodgers credit for taking care of business and not letting the series go back to Yankee Stadium, where New York was undefeated in the ALCS.

“It didn’t happen that way and they deserve all the credit in the world, they won the World Series,” Cortes said. “At the moment, they showed they were the better team.”

The Dodgers and Yankees will go head-to-head in a rematch of the 2024 World Series starting May 30 at Dodger Stadium. The second game of that series will be broadcast on FOX.

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