Domingo Germán pitched a perfect game for the New York Yankees last night. No use "burying the lead."
The 30-year-old Dominican righthander was 18-4 in 2019, when he was suspended 81 games for an alleged violation of Major League Baseball's domestic violence policy. That meant he would not be available for the postseason, and, due to the COVID-19 epidemic shortening it to 60 games, the entire 2020 season, including the postseason. That cost the Yankees dearly, as they really could have used one more really good -- or even competent -- starting pitcher in those postseasons.
Since his return in 2021, he has been terribly inconsistent, looking good in one start, looking terrible in the next. He's gone 10-15 with a 4.44 ERA since -- going into last night's game. This has included 2 suspensions for using "sticky stuff" on the mound. Clearly, that didn't work well.
The Yankees were in the 2nd game of a 3-game series against the Oakland Athletics at the Oakland Coliseum. The A's have the worst record in baseball, and that, plus the deterioration of the Coliseum, which opened in 1966, and local authorities' inability to get a new stadium built for them, leading to the likelihood of the team moving to Las Vegas within the next few years, have given the A's the worst attendance in MLB. But the A's beat the Yankees 2-1 the night before, a nice pitching performance wasted with a lousy hitting effort.
Germán took the mound at the Coliseum with little indication that history was in the making. In the 1st inning, he got Tony Kemp to fly out to right, and struck out Ryan Noda and Brent Rooker. In the 2nd inning, he got Carlos Pérez to ground to 3rd, and Seth Brown to pop up to catcher Kyle Higashioka, and struck out Jonah Bride. In the 3rd inning, he got Aledmys Díaz to ground to short, Shea Langeliers to fly to left, and Esteury Ruiz to line to shortstop Anthony Volpe.
Giancarlo Stanton hit a home run in the top of the 4th, giving Germán a lead to work with. In the bottom of the 4th, he got Kemp to fly to right, and struck Noda and Rooker out -- exactly the same results as in the 1st. The Yankees broke out for 6 runs in the top of the 5th, on 5 hits, 2 walks and an error. In the bottom of the 5th, Germán got Pérez to fly to right and Brown to ground to 1st, and struck Bride out. In the 6th, Díaz flew to left, and Germán struck out Langeliers and Ruiz.
A sacrifice fly by Josh Donaldson got the Yankees another run in the top of the 7th. In the bottom of the 7th, Kemp flew out, Noda struck out, and Rooker grounded to short. In the 8th, Pérez popped up to 1st. Brown grounded to 3rd. The YES Network announcers were doing whatever they could not to say the word "no-hitter" -- and a perfect game is a no-hitter -- for fear of jinxing it. I was watching, rather than listening to WCBS, but, surely, John Sterling used "the other N-word" several times.
Then came the biggest risk of the game: Germán went to a 3-ball-1-strike count on Bride, then induced a grounder to 3rd. Donaldson had a long throw, and it nearly pulled 1st baseman Anthony Rizzo off the bag. But Rizzo stayed on it. It seems as though every no-hitter has a defensive play great enough to make a fan say, "That's it: If he wasn't going to lose it on that play, he's gonna finish it."
The Yankees picked up 2 more runs in the top of the 9th, and the concern was going to be that a long inning might affect him. It didn't. He got Díaz to ground to short. He got Langeliers to fly to center. The batter was Ruiz. At 9:11 PM, Pacific Daylight Time (12:11 AM Eastern), he grounded to 3rd. Donaldson threw him out.
Ballgame over. Yankees win. "Baseball Immortality" achieved. Yankees 11, A's 0. WP: Germán (5-5). No save. LP: Former Yankee JP Sears (1-6).
It was the 4th perfect game in Yankee history. The 1st 3 were all pitched at the old Yankee Stadium:
* October 8, 1956: Don Larsen, against the Brooklyn Dodgers, in Game 5 of the World Series. It is no longer the only no-hitter in World Series history, but it's still the only perfect game in postseason history.
* May 17, 1998: David Wells, against the Minnesota Twins.
* July 18, 1999: David Cone, against the Montreal Expos.
Germán threw 99 pitches, 72 of them for strikes. For comparison's sake, Larsen threw 97, Wells threw 120, and Cone threw 88.
The series concludes tomorrow, with a day game, which is going to be difficult, especially if the Yankees are doing some celebrating tonight. Clarke Schmidt starts against James Kaprielian.