The New York Yankees won 11-0 against the Oakland Athletics on June 28, in the most historic of fashion. On 99 pitches through all nine innings, Yankees pitcher Domingo German would throw 9 strikeouts and allow no walks or hits. ESPN explains, "He mixed 51 curveballs and 30 fastballs that averaged 92.5 mph with 17 changeups and one sinker." German became the 24th player in MLB history to throw a perfect game and the 4th in Yankees franchise history.
To keep with the numbers, German is now the first and only player from the Dominican Republic to throw a perfect game. Funny enough, German's perfect game was extremely unexpected. In his last two starts, German allowed 17 runs in 5.1 innings. After an unfortunate outing against the Mariners, had become the "third Yankee to allow 10 runs and four homers in a game, joining Whitey Ford and Bob Turley," according to CBS Sports.
"I'm just happy for Domingo. He's had a rough last couple starts and been dragging a little bit," New York catcher Kyle Higashioka said, as reported by ESPN. "For him to do this and get back to being himself? I always felt like if anyone, he had a really good chance to do something like this. For it to all come together tonight, it's just amazing."
German's perfect game is the first since the Seattle Mariners' Felix Hernandez's August 15, 2012 outing. CBS Sports states that "the 3,969 days between Hernández and Germán is baseball's longest perfect game drought since the 4,755 days between Catfish Hunter (May 8, 1968) and Len Barker (May 15, 1981)."
The win over the Athletics was the most lopsided perfect game victory ever, the old holder of that title being Matt Cain's San Francisco Giants winning 10-0 over the Houston Astros on June 23, 2012. The 11-run game by the Yankees was a sign of life in the recently-struggling team, going into the night hitting ".198/.261/.347 and averaged only 3.0 runs per game in the 19 games since Aaron Judge injured his toe crashing into the Dodger Stadium outfield wall." However, the win was the third in their last four games.
German would dedicate the game to his uncle, CBS Sports reports. "Unfortunately, two days ago an uncle of mine passed away and I cried a lot yesterday in the clubhouse. I had him with me throughout the whole game. I was thinking about him and it happened. This game is a tribute to him," Germán would tell the YES Network. "... He would be so happy. He was always someone who really brought joy to our family."
The perfect game is a come-up for German, who had been suspended 10 games after being ejected during a game against the Toronto Blue Jays, having reportedly been "using too much rosin on his hands". German is now 5-5 on the year so far.
View the final out on YouTube here.
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