Since arriving in the big leagues six years ago, Domingo German has been anything but perfect—until now. The New York Yankees right-hander pitched the 24th perfect game in major league history Wednesday night, retiring every Oakland batter in an 11-0 victory over the Athletics. It was the first perfect game since Seattle Mariners ace Felix Hernandez threw one against the Tampa Bay Rays on Aug. 15, 2012, per the AP. There were three that season but none since until German finished off the first no-hitter in the majors this year. He joins Don Larsen (1956), David Wells (1998), and David Cone (1999) as Yankees to pitch perfect games, making the Yankees the first franchise with four perfect games. Larsen's gem came in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers.
"So exciting," German said through a translator. "When you think about something very unique in baseball, not many people have an opportunity to pitch a perfect game. To accomplish something like this in my career is something that I'm going to remember forever." Coming off a pair of terrible starts, German (5-5) struck out nine of 27 hitters against the A's, who have the worst record in the majors at 21-61. The 30-year-old pitcher served a 10-game suspension last month after getting ejected from a game in Toronto for using an illegal sticky substance on the mound. His only previous complete game as a professional came with Double-A Trenton in April 2017.
Winless in six previous outings against Oakland, German threw 72 of 99 pitches for strikes. He mixed 51 curveballs and 30 fastballs that averaged 92.5mph, with 17 change-ups and one sinker. He went to three balls on a batter just twice, falling behind Ryan Noda 3-1 in the fourth and Jonah Bride by the same count in the eighth. Noda struck out on consecutive curveballs, and German followed with three straight curves to Bride: one for a called strike, the next resulting in a foul ball, and the third in a groundout. Seth Brown came the closest to reaching base for the A's, hitting a sharp grounder in the fifth inning to first baseman Anthony Rizzo, who made a diving stop and tossed to German for the out.
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"It was just so fun to watch him do that and go to work. We've seen him flirt with outings like that over time," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said, thinking to when Boston's Alex Verdugo broke up German's no-hit bid in the eighth in July 2021. "When he gets rolling like that, he's just so fun to watch at his craft, because he's so good at commanding all of his pitches." It marked quite a personal turnaround for German, who went 18-4 in 2019 with the Yankees but was put on administrative leave late that season while MLB investigated an alleged domestic violence incident involving his girlfriend. He missed the entire pandemic-shortened 2020 season and playoffs while serving an 81-game suspension, then met with Yankees teammates and made a public apology at spring training when he returned to the club in February 2021.
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