Leave it to the Yankees' Alex Verdugo to put a unique spin on the World Series loss

NEW YORK — Yankees left-hander Nestor Cortes' second World Series appearance Monday night in the Bronx was a lot better than his first last Friday at Dodger Stadium.

When Nasty Nestor left the bullpen scoreless with a 1.2 pitch, Shohei Ohtani struck out again, and Freddie Freeman reached first base only on a fielding error by Jazz Chisholm, rather than as on the first walk-off grand slam of the World to score a hit series story.