The way Domingo German showed up for spring training to win the Yankees ’fifth starting job made his first regular-season start in 19 months highly anticipated.
But Sunday turned out to be more of a mistake, and not just for the right.
German gave up a couple of homers in a three-inning start and the Yankees ’silent bats offered no help in falling to the Blue Jays, 3-1, in the first-series rubber game at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees got just five hits against TJ Zeuch and a parade of Blue Jays lifeguards, who went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position. The last 11 Yankees batters retired to drop the series against a Blue Jays team that is expected to be a challenger this season at AL East.
It had been 564 days since Germany last caught the mound in a major league match, with an 81-game suspension for violating MLB’s domestic violence policy following an incident involving his girlfriend. Returning to the Yankees this spring, he faced some criticism from at least two of his teammates and had to address the team to apologize before doing the same publicly.
Before being suspended at the end of the 2019 season, German was 18-4 years old with an ERA of 4.03. He again earned a spot in the rotation with a strong spring workout, giving just two runs in 13 innings.
But German, who received a applause from the crowd of 10,066 during pre-match performances, needed 68 pitches to pass three innings, allowing three runs in defeat.
After working around a double for a 12-inning first inning, German had trouble in the second. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. scored a quick ball for a local throw to the opposite field, which put the Blue Jays at 1-0. After a single by Lourdes Gurriel Jr., German left a change in the heart of the plate and Randal Grichuk crushed him on the left field to get a two-run homer and 3-0.
After a break for the first outing of the session, German toured Alejandro Kirk in his 38th field of the day, at which point Michael King began warming up in the Yankees bullring. But German came out of the inning for his own eight throws later, which allowed him to throw one more box before King relieved him to start the fourth.
In the fifth inning, the Yankees finally opened the test thanks to Clint Frazier’s legs. He came out of the entrance with a shallow right field block, coming out of the box to turn it into a double. Then Frazier scored and came in third at the start of Gio Urshela before scoring on Brett Gardner’s field of play to make it 3-1.
The Yankees had other opportunities to rally, but failed to do so, leaving one runner at every entry from the second to the sixth.
Meanwhile, King saved the bullring and kept the Yankees in the game. After surviving a base-laden jam in his first inning, he retired 16 in a row as he threw the final six innings of the game.