The way in which Domingo German launched in spring training to win fifth place in the Yankees made his first regular season start in 19 months highly anticipated.
But Sunday turned out to be another failure, and not just for the right-handed.
The German gave up on a pair of homers in a three-way start and the Yankees’ quiet clubs offered no help when they fell to the Blue Jays 3-1 in the rubber game of the opening series at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees managed just five hits against TJ Zeuch and a parade of Blue Jays relievers, going 0-5 with the runners in the scoring position. The Yankees’ final 11 batsmen were retired as they lost the series against a Blue Jays team that is expected to be a challenger this season at AL East.
564 days have passed since German last attacked in a major league game, serving an 81-game suspension at halftime for violating MLB’s domestic violence policy after an incident involving his girlfriend. After his return to the Yankees this spring, he faced some criticism from at least two of his teammates and had to address the team to offer an apology before doing the same publicly.
Before being suspended at the end of the 2019 season, German was 18-4 with an ERA 4.03. He again won a spot in the rotation with strong spring training, dropping out of just two races in 13 entries.
But German, who received applause from a crowd of 10,066 during pre-game performances, needed 68 pitches to make it through three innings, allowing for three runs in defeat.
After working on a one-two for a first 12-shot entry, German had problems on the second. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. scored a quick ball for an advantage home run on the opposite field, putting the Blue Jays 1-0. After a single by Lourdes Gurriel Jr., German left a change in the heart of the board and Randal Grichuk smashed to the left for a two-race home run and a 3-0 lead.
After a strikeout for the first inning exit, German walked with Alejandro Kirk on his 38th shot of the day, at which point Michael King started to warm up in the Yankees’ bullpen. But German came out of the inning on his own eight shots later, allowing him to launch another frame before King replaced him to start the fourth.
In the fifth entry, the Yankees finally got a race thanks to the legs of Clint Frazier. He started the entry with a bloop to the shallow right field, coming out of the box to turn it into a double. Frazier then scored and reached third place on Gio Urshela’s flyout before scoring on Brett Gardner’s groundout to make it 3-1.
The Yankees had other chances to set up rallies, but failed, leaving a runner stranded at each entry, from second to sixth.
King, however, saved the bullpen and kept the Yankees in the game. After surviving a base jam in his first inning, he retired for 16 consecutive seconds while playing the last six innings of the game.