The Yankees Might Have Something Here in Domingo German
There’s been a lot of talk about the Yankees starting rotation over the last few weeks about how badly they needed to add a starting pitcher. First Jordan Montgomery found out he needed Tommy John surgery and then Tanaka pulled both his hamstrings running the bases at Citi Field. Well, in their last 23 games the Yankees starting pitchers lead the American League with a 2.96 ERA, a .215 batting average against, and a 1.07 WHIP which leads the AL. A big part in all three of those stats has been Domingo German, who has really found his groove. Tonight he was fantastic.
German had every pitch working for him this evening, baffling the Mariners for seven innings while generating a ton of swings and misses. After his seven strong innings were completed he had struck out nine men allowing just one earned run and walking nobody. German’s first inning always seems to bite him a little bit, but today he was let down by his defense. After a leadoff double by Dee Gordon, German got Segura to ground out to Didi. With Gordon running in front of Gregorius, he tried to get him at third, but thought about the throw before fielding the ball, resulting in a bad error. With runners now on first and third and no one out, German got Haniger to hit a looping liner to Andujar. The ball was not hit terribly hard and should have been caught on the fly. Instead it was knocked down, allowing Gordon to score as Miggy had to go to second for the out. But that was all the M’s got in the inning because German went on to struck out Cruz and Seager to end the threat.
From there on he cruised, retiring 16 batters in a row (18 if you include Cruz and Seager’s Ks) before allowing a harmless solo shot to Nelson Cruz in the 7th. He was nothing short of dominant against a very solid Mariners lineup. I don’t have the updated Fangraphs numbers after today’s start, but entering tonight German ranked 3rd among all pitchers with a minimum of 50 innings pitched in swing and miss % and 9th in swing and misses outside the zone. The only two pitchers in all of major league baseball that were ahead of him in total swing and miss % were Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer. Yeah, that’s how good German’s stuff is. He’s given the Yankees at least six innings of work in each of his last five outings and has struck out 28 men in his last three starts. I think we’ve got something here, guys and girls.
Offensively the Yankees were got to Marco Gonzales with relative ease, even though he came into tonight with an ERA of 1.41 over his last six starts. Giancarlo Stanton kept his recent groove going with a solo shot in the 1st.
He’s standing closer to the plate, his bat is off his shoulder, and he’s standing more upright. His stance has been altered and we’re seeing immediate results.
Miggy Andujar entered tonight in a little bit of a slump (.182 with 1 HR 2 RBIs L9 games), but golfed out a big two run homer that gave the Yankees the lead in the 5th.
Clint Frazier started tonight in left and picked up a hit, so obviously Aaron Hicks had to respond with a two run homer of his own. I decided to crunch some numbers for the first time since my freshman year of college and compiled Hicks’ stats when Frazier has been on the major league roster.
Hicks ended up singling after this tweet so increase those numbers as you please. The point obviously stands, Clint Frazier makes Aaron Hicks hit. He cannot be sent down for any reason the rest of the year, no iffs ands or buts. Leo DiCaprio was The Aviator, Clint Frazier is The Motivator. Alright, I’ll stop.
Later in the game, Gleyber Torres demolished this ball for his 14th homer in just 50 career MLB games.
Some guy named Aaron Judge also had 14 home runs through 50 games. He’s also now alone with Joe Morgan for guys his age with 14 homers in their rookie season at 2nd base. No big deal…
BUY BUY BUY the shirt right this very second because every day is Gleyber Day.