Sunday German. Perfection. (` Photo/Godofredo A Vasquez)
Within hours, New York Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán went through one of the worst periods of his career and landed in MLB history.
The right-hander hit the 24th perfect game in MLB history in the Yankees’ 11-0 win on Wednesday, beating the dying Oakland Athletics 27 straight times. It is also the fourth perfect game in Yankees history, along with Don Larsen, David Wells and David Cone, giving the franchise the best game in MLB history.
The final stats: nine innings pitched, zero hits, zero walks, nine strikeouts, and 99 pitches.
The feat also ends an 11-year losing streak since the last perfect game, when Seattle Mariners star Félix Hernández found perfection on August 15, 2012. It was the longest dry spell in 13 years between 1968 (Catfish Hunter) and 1981 (Len Barker).
As with all perfect games, it wasn’t just an individual effort for Germán, helped by defensive players like that jump stop in the fifth inning.
The Rizz 🤌 pic.twitter.com/7HLHeWuDBJ
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) June 29, 2023
Of course, this is about Germán, who has been as far from perfect as almost any other pitcher in MLB in the past few months.
Domingo Germán was booed by Yankees fans during his last start
Rewind six days and you can see Germán coming off the mound at Yankee Stadium and being booed heavily after conceding ten runs (eight earned), eight hits and two walks, which was his, in 3.1 innings against the Mariners ERA increased to 5.10.
That ERA would have been the sixth-worst in MLB on Wednesday if Germán had pitched enough innings to qualify.
The game was Germán’s second straight breakout as he also conceded seven earned runs in his previous start against the Boston Red Sox. It was such a season for Germán, who enjoyed similar results in April. His May might have been far-fetched had it not been for a 10-game suspension for allegedly violating MLB foreign object guidelines.
Perfect matches really can come from anywhere. For every Sandy Koufax, there’s a Phillip Humber. However, Germán’s historic night might be the most surprising of them all.
Another low point for the A’s
If there’s anything against Germán’s performance, it’s against the A’s, whose status as a major league team is getting tougher by the day.
The team was already the worst in MLB on Wednesday with an all-time poor record of 21-60 and a -223 running difference. They’ve already gone through a controversial relocation process that will likely land them in Las Vegas for years to come. After two decades of notoriously low payrolls and only sporadic regular-season success, viewership was at an all-time low.
And now a perfect game from Germán. One can only really wonder if this is the low point.
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