BOSTON — Domingo German was spectacular Sunday.
The right-hander easily dominated the Red Sox for seven innings. Alex Verdugo broke up his no-hit bid to lead off the eighth, but German left with a comfortable lead and went to the dugout to watch the rest of the innings.
It was brutal to watch.
The Red Sox rallied for five runs in the eighth to come-from-behind to beat the Bombers 5-4 at Fenway Park.
It was yet another of the Yankees’ gut-punch losses. They already have several in the running for the “worst of the season,” but the timing of this one makes it the leader.
The Yankees (51-47), trying to save their season, needed wins against the Red Sox (61-39) and Rays to get back into the division mix. They pulled off their own eighth-inning rally on Saturday and were hoping to at least get a split. Instead, they leave Boston nine games back in the American League East, heading into Tampa to face the Rays.
And the Yankees bullpen, which melted down on Thursday, dissolved again on Sunday.
Jonathan Loaisiga allowed all four batters he faced to score, adding a run to German’s record as well. Zack Britton had to come in to clean up, but an infield chopper by pinch-hitter Kevin Plawecki brought in the go-ahead run.
It was an awful ending to the series, which was the first the Yankees had lost since the Mets series in the beginning of the month.
It was a terrible finish for German as well.
German was nearly perfect and looked incredibly comfortable on Sunday. He took a no-hitter into the eighth and dominated a tough Red Sox lineup. After giving a leadoff double in the eight, Loaisiga allowed the run to score.
German went seven innings plus a batter, allowed one run on one hit. He walked one and struck out 10. He mixed his pitches and worked quickly. He worked around a leadoff walk to Hunter Renfroe in the third and a passed ball on a third strike in the seventh. Those were his only two base runners.
The real challenge for German on Sunday wasn’t the Red Sox hitters, but his own arm.
The Yankees gave him room to work. Rougned Odor scored Greg Allen with a single in the third and the Yankees infielder hit his 12th home run of the season to lead off the sixth. Gleyber Torres led off the fourth with a double and scored on Gio Urshela’s single in the fourth.
The 28-year-old had not pitched past the seventh inning or 99 pitches this season. He was coming off missing an entire season in 2020 serving his 82-game suspension under MLB/MLBPA’s joint domestic violence policy. The Yankees had been backing off German of late, using him out of the bullpen for shorter outings. Three of his last four appearances all came in relief. He made a start fave days before and went just 70 pitches.
Verdugo made the decision easy for Aaron Boone when he lifted a fly ball over the head of right fielder Greg Allen for a lead-off double in the eighth.
“With the weather and with the all star break and obviously missing some starts maybe that’s something that buys him a little bit of freshness down the stretch and we preserve some of his innings for us,” Boone had said before the game. “So, like you said, it wasn’t necessarily by design, but I feel like he’s physically in a good spot."
