Domingo Germán's Perfect Game

On June 28, 2023, the Dominican professional baseball pitcher Domingo Germán of the New York Yankees threw the 24th perfect game in Major League Baseball history, and the fourth in Yankees franchise history. Germán pitched it during an 11–0 win against the Oakland Athletics at the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, California.

With Germán's perfect game, the Yankees became the first MLB franchise with four perfect games pitched. Oakland Coliseum joined the original Yankee Stadium as the only venues to host three perfect games. The game's color commentary for the Athletics' broadcast was done by former Athletics pitcher Dallas Braden, who threw a perfect game himself in 2010.

Background

Perfect game

In Major League Baseball (MLB), a perfect game occurs when a pitcher faces and retires the minimum number of opposing batters – 27 across nine innings without any batter safely reaching first base. While a no-hitter may allow opposing batters to reach base on a walk, hit by pitch, uncaught third strike, fielder's choice, or error, none of these occur in a perfect game. Pitching a perfect game is one of the rarest feats in baseball, with only 24 instances officially recognized by MLB since 1876. Prior to Germán's perfect game, the most recent occurrence was almost 11 years prior, on August 15, 2012, when Félix Hernández of the Seattle Mariners pitched one against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Domingo Germán

Domingo Germán made his MLB debut with the New York Yankees in 2017, and by the 2019 season, he had joined the team's regular starting rotation. In January 2020, MLB suspended Germán for 81 games under the league's domestic violence policy, which caused him to miss the entirety of the pandemic-shortened season. He struggled with shoulder injuries during the next two seasons, but returned partway through 2022 and ended the year with a 2–5 win–loss record and 3.61 earned run average (ERA) in 16 games (15 starts). By 2023, the Yankees did not see Germán as a regular starter until other pitchers in the organization were sidelined by injury.

Germán struggled in the lead-up to his perfect game, entering his start with a 4–5 record and 5.10 ERA. After being warned about MLB's policy on sticky substances in April, he was suspended for 10 games in May under a violation of that same policy. On June 16,
Germán lasted only two innings against the Boston Red Sox, allowing seven earned runs in the process, and on June 22, the start before his perfect game, he was booed off the pitcher's mound after giving up a career-high 10 runs in innings against the Seattle Mariners.

Game

Germán threw 99 pitches (thereby making it a Maddux), including 51 curveballs. He struck out nine batters. Yankees catcher Kyle Higashioka, who had also caught a no-hitter thrown by Corey Kluber in 2021, said after the game, "I was a passenger for this one ... Domingo was definitely driving the ship." The New York Yankees scored 11 runs, surpassing the 10 runs scored by the San Francisco Giants in Matt Cain's perfect game in 2012 for the most run support ever in a perfect game. The game ended as Esteury Ruiz grounded to third baseman Josh Donaldson, who threw to first baseman Anthony Rizzo to record the final out.

Germán recorded his 500th career strikeout during the game. It was the fourth perfect game in Yankees history, after games thrown by Don Larsen in 1956, by David Wells in 1998, and David Cone in 1999. As the Yankees would fail to make the postseason in 2023, it marked the first time a Yankees pitcher threw a perfect game and they didn't proceed to win the World Series. It was the first perfect game in MLB since Félix Hernández's perfect game on August 15, 2012, the first since the implementation of the pitch clock, and the first thrown by a pitcher from the Dominican Republic.

There were 12,479 fans in attendance for the game at Oakland Coliseum, with many fans favoring the Yankees. The game was televised locally on the YES Network and NBC Sports California. Dallas Braden, a former Athletics pitcher who pitched a perfect game in 2010, was the Athletics' color commentator on NBC Sports California. Ryan Ruocco, substituting for Michael Kay, called the game on the YES Network, while Justin Shackil, substituting for John Sterling, called the play-by-play on WFAN.

Game statistics

Batting

* 2B: Donaldson (1, Long); Higashioka (7, Sears); Bader (3, Sears); Volpe (10, Fujinami)
* HR: Stanton (7, 4th inning off Sears 0 on, 2 Out)
*RBI: Donaldson 2 (11), Higashioka (19), Stanton 3 (17), LeMahieu (26), Kiner-Falefa 2 (19)
*2-Out RBI: Stanton, Kiner-Falefa
* SF: Donaldson
* GIDP: Kiner-Falefa
*Team LOB: 6
*Team RISP: 5-for-17.

Baserunning

* SB: Volpe (16, 3rd base off Sears/Langeliers)

Fielding

* DP: 1 (Díaz-Kemp-Noda)
* E: Sears (1, throw); Noda (3, fielding); Bride (1, throw)

Other statistics

* WP: Fujinami.
* Pitches-strikes: Germán 99–72; Sears 92–55; Fujinami 30–18; Ríos, Y 3–0; Pruitt 20–13; Long 33–21.
* Groundouts-flyouts: Germán 8–7; Sears 2–2; Fujinami 0–0; Ríos, Y 0–0; Pruitt 4–1; Long 2–0.
* Batters faced: Germán 27; Sears 21; Fujinami 9; Ríos, Y 1; Pruitt 6; Long 7.
* Inherited runners-scored: Fujinami 3–3; Pruitt 1–1.

Other information

Alexandra Irving became the first woman in Major League Baseball history to be an official scorer for any perfect game with this game.https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/athletics/article/bay-area-woman-becomes-first-mlb-history-score-18180219.php

See also

* List of Major League Baseball no-hitters
* List of Major League Baseball perfect games

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:German's, Domingo, perfect game
2023 in baseball
2023 in sports in California
2023 Major League Baseball season
2020s in Oakland, California
June 2023 sports events in the United States
Major League Baseball perfect games
Oakland Athletics