Yankees starting pitcher Domingo Germán made history Wednesday night in Oakland. He threw the 24th perfect game in Major League history in the Yankees’ 11-0 win.
A perfect game means Germán went up against just 27 batters, knocking out every single one. Not a single opposing player reached the base.
He hit nine goals and was not even seriously threatened by the lackluster A’s offense. He kept working his way up the count, allowing mostly soft contact when he wasn’t missing bats. There were some good defensive plays, most notably from first baseman Anthony Rizzo, but this was all German.
It had been a while since the last perfect game in Major League Baseball. Though we’ve seen our share of no-hitters since then, the last perfect game came in 2012 when the Mariners’ Félix Hernández accomplished that feat on August 15. It was actually the third this season since Matt Cain and Philip Humber also pulled off the feat.
The Yankees’ last perfect game came on July 18, 1999 when David Cone made it. David Wells (1998) and Don Larsen (World Series 1956) also showed perfect games with the Yankees.
With Germán’s perfect game, the Yankees moved to the top of the MLB ahead of the White Sox. The two teams previously tied for most perfect games with three games.
Obviously, no-hitters are far more common than perfect plays, but there hadn’t been one this season prior to Germán’s performance on Wednesday. Last year there were four, including the Astros, who used four pitchers to throw a combo no-go in Game 4 of the World Series. The last singles no-hitter came on May 10 of last season on the arm of Angels left-hander Reid Detmers. The Yankees’ last no-hitter happened on May 21, 2021, and that was Corey Kluber. To this point, there have been 12 Yankees no-hitters and over 300 in MLB history.