Domingo German, a curveball and a perfect game

OAKLAND, Calif. – Players were in no rush to leave the field.

After any Major League Baseball team wins a game, players and staff make their way to the field for perfunctory handshakes and fist bumps. Everyone then makes their way back into the clubhouse, the entire process typically lasting no more than a few minutes.

Late Wednesday night, Yankees players and the rest of the club’s traveling party couldn’t get enough time on the Oakland Coliseum field; talking, hugging, laughing and posing for pictures and videos, seemingly wanting to absorb as much of the night as they could.

And for good reason.

It’s not every night they’re first-hand observers to the kind of history that had just been made. Domingo German threw a perfect game in the Yankees’ 11-0 victory over the A’s, just the 24th perfect game in MLB history and the fourth by the franchise.

“Perfect games are so rare, you’re just like, ‘OK, it’s probably not going to happen. A perfect game, who does that?’” said Kyle Higashioka, who also was behind the plate for the Yankees’ last no-hitter, a gem thrown by Corey Kluber on May 19, 2021, against the Ranger. “As soon as the seventh came around, he had a pretty easy inning [eight pitches], and I was like, ‘Wow, I think he can actually do this.’ Just an incredible night for him. Makes me really happy to see him bounce back, especially after a couple of rough starts.”

German, who struck out nine and allowed one hard-hit ball – a ground smash by Seth Brown in the fifth inning that first baseman Anthony Rizzo made a diving stop on – became the first Yankee to throw a perfect game since David Cone did so July 18, 1999, against the Expos at Yankee Stadium.

Any perfect game is unlikely – again, there’s only been 24 in big-league history – so categorizing German’s as any more or less likely than the others is a fruitless exercise.

But there certainly were no signs shown of late German had that kind of game in him.

The 30-year-old came into the night having allowed 17 runs (15 earned) in 5 1/3 innings over his previous two starts against the Red Sox and Mariners, allowing 15 hits (including five home runs) in that stretch.  

Command, among other things, was an issue those two starts, but not on Wednesday. German was never taxed in any inning, throwing a total of 99 pitches (72 strikes). He needed just six pitches in the ninth to notch his place in history.

His best pitch, the curveball, was as good as it’s been, but German’s changeup and fastball were just as good.

“When he gets rolling like that, he's just so fun to watch at his craft," said Aaron Boone, using the word “masterpiece” several times in describing his pitcher’s night. "He's so good at commanding all of his pitches. His curveball was great tonight. But because his changeup and his fastball were good, too, it made that curveball even more special.”

The view in the A’s clubhouse was similar.

“He threw that curveball in any count that he wanted to," second baseman Tony Kemp told reporters. "It was spinning differently and moving differently. He put his fastball where he wanted to. Changeup as well. He just kind of mixed them. Got a couple of good swings off him, but no results.”

Just the end result of German taking his place on an exclusive list -- a list German was especially proud of joining given the most recent player before him on it was Felix Hernandez. The Mariners’ star threw MLB’s previous perfect game, Aug. 15, 2012, against the Rays.

“He was my idol,” German said. “I really looked up to the way he pitched. To be on the list, following him, means a lot."