New York Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán threw baseball’s first perfect game since 2012 on Wednesday night as he retired all 27 Oakland A’s batters he faced in order.
Germán’s perfect game is just the 24th in baseball’s long history and the first in MLB since Seattle Mariners great Felix Hernandez fired one against the Tampa Bay Rays on Aug. 15, 2012. It’s the fourth perfect game all-time for the Yankees; Germán joins David Cone (1999), David Wells (1998) and Don Larsen, who threw the only perfect game in World Series history in 1956.
Germán entered Wednesday night with a pedestrian 5.10 ERA and a 4-5 record — he gave up 10 runs in his last outing — but was dazzling against the A’s. He struck out nine and finished the game needing only 99 pitches (72 strikes) to blank baseball’s worst team in an 11-0 Yankees victory.
Germán revealed after the game that he was pitching with a heavy heart.
“Unfortunately, two days ago, an uncle of mine passed away and I cried a lot yesterday in the clubhouse, so I had him with me throughout the whole game,” Germán said on the field after the game, via interpreter. “…This game is a tribute to him.”
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“He would have been so happy,” Germán added. “He was always somebody that really brought joy to our family, and it happened for him to watch this way from up there.”
Germán’s perfect game doubled as the first no-hitter of the 2023 season. This is the latest day on the calendar for the season’s first no-hitter since July 2, 2013, when the Cincinnati Reds’ Homer Bailey no-hit the San Francisco Giants.
The A’s had not been on the receiving end of a perfect game since 1904, when all-time wins leader Cy Young (then of the Boston Americans) threw one vs. the Philadelphia-based squad. This marked the 13th no-hitter in Yankees history, the last coming from Corey Kluber in 2021.
Just six weeks ago, Germán was suspended 10 games by MLB for violating the foreign substances regulations during a between-innings check. Germán claimed at the time it was just “sweat and the rosin bag.”
Contributing: Mike Brehm and Associated Press
