The Yankees offense exploded for 11 runs and Domingo German was perfect in the team’s 11-0 win over the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday night.
Takeaways
-German, coming off back-to-back starts where he gave up a combined 15 earned runs, was on his game against a, honestly, weaker opponent in the A’s. The right-hander would breeze through the A’s lineup, pitching a perfect game through seven innings — and only 82 pitches — using his curveball to keep the Athletics hitters off balance.
More impressive for German was that he had to deal with sitting in the dugout for large periods of time due to his offense putting up big innings and an injury timeout for the Athletics after one of their relievers had to leave the game.
With two outs in the eighth inning, German almost lost his perfect game. Jonah Bride worked a 3-1 count, but German came back to get him to ground out and enter the ninth inning with his perfect game intact.
In the ninth, German got Aledmys Diaz to ground out, Shea Langeliers to fly out and Esterury Ruiz to ground out to complete the perfect game. German becomes the 24th player in baseball history and joins Don Larsen (1956), David Wells (1998) and David Cone (1999) as the only Yankees in history to pitch a perfect game.
German needed just 99 pitches (72 strikes) to get through the Athletics lineup and struck out nine batters.
– Giancarlo Stanton would get the Yankees on the board in the fourth inning with a solo shot, his seventh of the season. It was his first extra-base hit since June 13 against the Mets — also a home run.
Stanton would have a very good day at the plate, going 2-for-3 with three RBI and a walk.
-The fifth inning is where the Yankee offense came alive. Against former Yankee JP Sears — a trade piece in the Frankie Montas deal — Isiah Kiner-Falefa led off with a walk before Kyle Higashioka he doubled him home and gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead. Anthony Volpe hit a bunt single, but Sears threw the ball away, which allowed Higashioka to score on the error.
After Volpe stole third — his 16th of the season — DJ LeMahieu singled him home to put the Yankees up 4-0. Gleyber Torres walked and Anthony Rizzo reached on a fielder’s choice and an error — Oakland’s second in the inning. This brought up Stanton with the bases loaded and no one out. The slugger singled to score DJ and Gleyber and put the Yankees up 6-0. After a pair of strikes out from Harrison Bader and Josh DonaldsonIKF came up with a single to give the Yanks a 7-0 lead.
– It was an all-around good offensive day for the Yankees. Besides Stanton many other struggling Yankees were able to pick up some hits or get on base. LeMahieu finished 1-for-5 while Rizzo went 0-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored. Bader had two hits Donaldson went 1-for-4 with a double and two RBI.
Highlights
What’s Next
The Yankees wrap up their three-game series with the Athletics on Thursday in Oakland. First pitch is scheduled for 3:37 pm.
Clarke Schmidt (2-6, 4.32 ERA) is slated to take the mound for the Yanks. The Athletics have yet to announce their starter.