Yankees pitcher Domingo German’s long, long awaited return didn’t go so well on Easter Sunday at Yankee Stadium because the Toronto Blue Jays hit a couple baseballs that were long, long gone.
Three innings in, the Yanks were down three runs and turned to another young arm that they really like, and, wow, did Michael King impress. The righty worked one, then two, then three, then four, then fifth and then a sixth scoreless inning of relief, the last five of them perfect.
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This sensational relief outing gave the Yankees a fighting chance, but turned out to a silver lining to a bad result. The Blue Jays won 3-1 and took the season-opening series two-games-to-1.
One rough inning tarnished German’s first outing since his domestic violence incident in September 2019.
German set down the Blue Jays 1-2-3 on 12 pitches in the first, but allowed three second-inning runs on two homers. Vladimir Guerrero led off with an opposite-field blast in the right-field seats, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. followed with a single and Randal Grichuk went deep to left to make it a 3-0 ballgame.
“I just didn’t feel like he was sharp with some of the secondary pitches,” Boone said of German. “The home run to Vlad is going to happen, then he hangs a breaking ball to Gurriel to get it going and then Grichuk hits a hanging changeup after putting together a pretty good at-bat. So (German) just made a couple of mistakes. They made them pay.”
German needed 68 pitches to get through three innings, and that’s when manager Aaron Boone turned to King, a 25-year-old who pitched to a 7.22 ERA out his first 10 big-league outings from 2019-20.
King, who also threw 68 pitches but twice as many innings as German, ran into a jam right away when the Blue Jays fourth started with a four-pitch walk and a single. But King got out of the mess, which included Toronto loading the bases on a two-out catcher’s interference, then he amazingly worked 1-2-3 innings from the fifth through the ninth.
This was a bullpen-saving performance from King, who became the first Yankees reliever to work six shutout innings innings while allowing one or no hits since lefty Bob Shirley on Sept. 21, 1986.
“He pitched great, and to be as pitch efficient as he was to be able to complete that game was huge for us to save some guys obviously,” Boone said. “He was really in command and gave us a chance. We just couldn’t muster enough offensively.”
NOTABLE
— Brett Gardner played left field and was 1-for-3 with an infield single an RBI groundout in his first start of the season.
— The Yankees scored their only run in the fifth inning when Clint Frazier got a hustling double on a blooper behind first that dropped in, went to third on a flyout and scored on Gardner’s grounder to second.
— Aaron Hicks was 0-for-4 with a strikeout and finished the series 1-for-12 with seven Ks and two walks.
— Gary Sanchez was 0-for-4 with a strikeout and failed to join Dave Winfield (1983) and Mark Teixeira (2011) as the only Yankees to homer in the first three games of the season.
— Sanchez was charged with a catcher’s interference, his second error in two days, and had a high pitch by German deflect off his glove for a wild pitch.
LOOKING AHEAD
Monday: Orioles at Yankees, 6:35 p.m., YES Network. RHP Jorge Lopez (2-2, 6.69 in 2020) vs. LHP Jordan Montgomery (2-3, 5.11 in 2020).
Tuesday: Orioles at Yankees, 6:35 p.m., YES Network. RHP Dean Kremer (1-1, 4.82 in 2020) vs. RHP Gerrit Cole (0-0, 3.38).
Wednesday: Orioles at Yankees, 6:35 p.m., YES Network. LHP John Means (1-0, 0.00) vs. RHP Jameson Taillon (injured in 2020).
Thursday: Off day.
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Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
