Trevor Rosenthal finally records out in 2019 - MLB

The Nationals destroyed the Phillies on Wednesday night, winning by a 15-1 margin. While losing by such a wide margin may be shameful in and of itself, it may have been a specific incident within Wednesday’s game that was of greater shame to the Phillies. Phillies catcher Andrew Knapp struck out against reliever Trevor Rosenthal, becoming the right-hander’s first out of the season.

Coming into the game, Rosenthal failed to record outs on any of the nine batters he had faced. On March 30 against the Mets, he gave up back-to-back singles to Wilson Ramos and Jeff McNeil, walked Amed Rosario, then served up a two-run single to J.D. Davis. The next day, he allowed an RBI single to Rosario before being yanked. On April 3 against the Phillies, he walked Maikel Franco and Scott Kingery before the Vaudeville hook pulled him off stage. Finally, on April 7 against the Mets, he hit Dominic Smith with a pitch, then uncorked two wild pitches before walking Luis Guillorme.

With the Nationals leading 15-0 in the bottom of the ninth, manager Dave Martinez decided to bring Rosenthal into the game in the lowest of low-leverage situations. Things started off as bad as usual, with Rosenthal walking Rhys Hoskins on five pitches. That marked 10 consecutive batters faced to begin the season without recording an out. Rosenthal, however, bounced back by blowing a 100 MPH, 2-2 fastball past Andrew Knapp for the first out of the inning and the first out of the season for Rosenthal.

Rosenthal’s performance certainly did not inspire any confidence. After fanning Knapp, Rosenthal issued back-to-back walks to Odúbel Herrera and César Hernández to load the bases. Franco grounded out to first base to bring in a run, marring the shutout. Aaron Altherr, an outfielder who came in to pitch the top of the ninth, flied out to right field to end the game.

Rosenthal’s ERA no longer reads “INF” (for “infinite”), but is an unflattering 72.00. With one inning under his belt, he has yielded eight runs (all earned) on four hits and seven walks with one strikeout.

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The Yankees placed Nestor Cortes on the 15-day injured list with a left rotator cuff strain that will sideline the left-hander for at least two starts.

The move is retroactive to Monday and Cortes will be shut down for at least 15 days.

After Tuesday’s game, Cortes said the shoulder has been bothering him between starts and more so after he pitched five innings May 30 in Seattle.

“I took two days off and when I got to LA and threw that first day, I didn’t feel right,” Cortes said Tuesday. “But it was first day coming back from pitching so I knew it was going to be nagging a little bit. So I waited a little bit.

“That second day in LA was when I said something because it felt like I had pitched yesterday. So I wasn’t recovering in time.”

Cortes is 5-2 with a 5.16 ERA in 11 starts and has particularly struggled later in outings. Opponents are hitting .447 when facing him for the third time in a game.

Last year, Cortes was an All-Star and went 12-4 with a 2.44 ERA in 28 starts.

Randy Vásquez was recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre to take Cortes’ spot in the rotation and will make his second career start in Thursday’s doubleheader. Vásquez made his major league debut May 26 against San Diego when the Yankees needed a starter because Domingo Germán was serving a 10-game suspension for using sticky substances.