Last night marked an iconic moment in MLB as Domingo German pitched the 24th perfect game in league history, the first since Felix Hernandez.
The feat of arms was accomplished in an 11-0 victory for the Yankees against the poor Athletics.
That said, even if he didn’t exactly do it against a star club, it doesn’t diminish his achievement: he still retired 27 Major League batters in a row, which had only been achieved 23 times before did it yesterday.
And when you look at it all with a bit of context, you realize how much German and the Yankees needed a performance like this.
After an interesting start to the season, German had just had two terrible starts. After allowing the Red Sox seven runs in two innings of work, he allowed the Mariners 10 in 3.1 innings in his last outing.
And when you add his ejection for sticky substances earlier this season, you realize a big performance was going to do him some good.
Recall that at the beginning of the year, German was not even to be part of the rotation of the Yankees. However, injuries to Carlos Rodon, Luis Severino and Frankie Montas made room for him, and he got the job done in their absence.
And beyond his recent performances, his perfect game has probably done German a lot of good on a personal level. At the beginning of the week, his uncle passed away and it affected him greatly, to the point where he cried a lot on Tuesday and thought of him many times during his game yesterday.
Like what the gods of baseball are capable of a little justice.
However, for the Yankees, it is also a performance around which the club must rally. The absence of Aaron Judge is hard on the Bronx Bombers, and in a division as tough as the American East, they can’t afford to lose ground.
Seeing a guy like German, who isn’t exactly a star, put on a performance like this should inspire the rest of the band. Guys like Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Rizzo and Josh Donaldson (all of whom did relatively well yesterday) need to pull out all the stops to pull the club up.
German’s performance yesterday has the potential to juice up a club that has been amorphous for a few weeks. There won’t be a perfect game every night, but the Yankees need to build on that to survive until Judge returns (if there is in 2023).
In short, on several levels, German delivered the performance his club needed, but also needed. Let’s hope for the Yankees that this will be the start of a great streak.
- Let’s also give some credit to Kyle Higashioka, who was the Yankees catcher yesterday. He’s been with the organization since 2008, and after helping Corey Kluber throw a no-hitter in 2020, here he is in history as a perfect-game catcher. Nice story for him too.
