June 28, 2023. A Wednesday night at the Oakland Coliseum, a stadium so far past its expiration date that it had spent a decade as baseball's running joke for busted plumbing, and a fanbase that had mostly given up and gone home. Announced attendance: 12,479, and that's being generous about how many of those seats had a person in them. Domingo Germán took the mound for the New York Yankees having allowed 10 runs in his previous start. Nobody in that half-empty ballpark had any reason to expect history.
They got it anyway. Germán retired all 27 Athletics he faced, and the Yankees won 11-0, and by the time it was over, Oakland's rock-bottom ballpark had hosted the 24th perfect game in major league history. (This was peak tank-mode A's, the era when the front office seemed more focused on finding a new zip code than fielding a lineup. Perfect opponent for a perfect game, honestly.)
The Worst Ace in Baseball
Here's the part that makes this whole thing absurd: Germán was bad heading into that start. Not "scuffling," not "finding his groove" -- bad. He came in 4-5 with a 5.10 ERA, and six days earlier he'd been rocked for 10 runs on eight hits in 3.1 innings against Seattle. That's not a guy trending toward perfection. That's a guy trending toward a demotion.
Per the Elias Sports Bureau, no pitcher in major league history had ever thrown a perfect game immediately after allowing 10-plus runs in his prior start. Germán is the answer to a trivia question nobody thought to ask. (He's also only the second pitcher ever to throw a perfect game carrying a season ERA north of 5.00 -- the first was David Wells, who sat at 5.23 entering his own perfecto in 1998. Small sample size of two, both Yankees, both somehow fine with it.)
Twenty-Seven Up
Germán needed 99 pitches to do it -- 72 for strikes -- and leaned on his curveball all night, throwing 51 of them against 30 fastballs (averaging 92.5 mph), 17 changeups, and a single sinker for good measure. Nine strikeouts, 11 groundouts, seven flyouts. Twenty-seven outs, zero baserunners, zero close calls. Kyle Higashioka caught it and downplayed his own role afterward: "Honestly, I just felt like I was a passenger for this one. Just don't miss the ball, and don't mess it up. Domingo was definitely driving the ship."
There was no signature defensive gem to talk about after, no Gionfriddo catch or DiMaggio going back on a liner. Esteury Ruiz grounded out to third baseman Josh Donaldson to end it, Donaldson threw across to Anthony Rizzo, and that was that. Clean, quiet, almost polite. Aaron Boone -- who authored his own bit of Yankees October chaos twenty years earlier -- called it watching Germán "paint a masterpiece." Coming from a guy who knows what it feels like to deliver a moment nobody saw coming, that's a real compliment.
Germán said he'd been thinking about it "all game long," which is usually the thing that jinxes it. Not this time. And there was a reason the ninth inning hit different for him. His uncle had died two days before the game. "I cried a lot yesterday in the clubhouse," he said afterward, "so I had him with me throughout the whole game." By the time he got Ruiz to ground out, he described feeling "an amount of pressure that I've never felt before" -- and then, in the same breath, called the whole thing "so rewarding."
Larsen, Wells, Cone, Germán
The Yankees now own four perfect games -- more than any other franchise in the sport -- and Germán's joined a short, strange lineage: Don Larsen in the 1956 World Series, David Wells in 1998, David Cone in 1999, and now this. It was the first perfect game thrown by a Yankee since Cone, nearly 24 years earlier. It was the first perfect game thrown by anybody in the majors since Félix Hernández in 2012 -- nearly an 11-year gap the sport had gone without one. And Germán became the first pitcher born in the Dominican Republic to ever throw one, a distinction that outlasts every stat line above it. (Pitch counts across the four, for what it's worth: Larsen 97, Cone 88, Germán 99, and Wells lumbering home at 120 -- proof you don't need to be efficient, just perfect.) The Yankees' 11 runs of support also made it the highest-scoring perfect game on record, beating the 10 runs the Giants gave Matt Cain back in 2012. Even the footnotes had footnotes: Alexandra Irving became the first woman to serve as official scorer for a perfect game in major league history.
The Part That Doesn't Get a Highlight Reel
None of that erases what came before it or what came right after. In January 2020, MLB suspended Germán 81 games under its domestic violence policy, stemming from a September 2019 incident involving the mother of his children. He didn't appeal it. He agreed to counseling and a donation to Sanctuary for Families, a New York nonprofit that supports survivors of domestic violence, and he missed the rest of that season and the entire shortened 2020 campaign before returning to the club in February 2021 with a public apology to his teammates. That's part of his record. Pretending otherwise would be its own kind of dishonesty.
And five weeks after the perfect game, Germán voluntarily entered inpatient treatment for alcohol abuse, and the Yankees placed him on MLB's restricted list, ending his 2023 season at 5-7 with a 4.56 ERA. Brian Cashman didn't sugarcoat it: he didn't expect Germán to pitch again that year. A career that includes one of the 24 most perfect nights in the sport's history also includes two separate reckonings with real, serious problems. Both things are true. Baseball doesn't clean that up for you, and neither should the write-up.
What lasts from June 28, 2023, is the box score -- 27 up, 27 down, in a half-empty ballpark on the wrong coast, with a man who'd been rocked for double-digit runs six days earlier and was carrying his uncle with him the whole time. Baseball hands out perfect games maybe once every couple of years, and it clearly doesn't care whether you deserve one on paper.
| Date | June 28, 2023 (Wednesday) |
| Score | Yankees 11, Athletics 0 |
| Location / Attendance | Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, CA -- 12,479 |
| Germán's Pitching Line | 9 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K, 99 pitches (72 strikes) |
| Batted-Ball Outs | 11 groundouts, 7 flyouts |
| Pitch Mix | 51 curveballs, 30 fastballs (92.5 mph avg), 17 changeups, 1 sinker |
| Perfect Game No. | 24th in MLB history; 4th in Yankees history |
| Final Out | Esteury Ruiz grounded to 3B Josh Donaldson, throw to 1B Anthony Rizzo |
| Germán's Record Entering Game | 4-5, 5.10 ERA (previous start: 10 R allowed in 3.1 IP vs. Seattle) |
Larsen Throws the First One
Don Larsen pitches the only perfect game in World Series history at Yankee Stadium, the first of what will become four Yankees perfectos.
Wells Throws the Second
David Wells throws a perfect game against Minnesota carrying a 5.23 ERA -- still the highest ERA of any perfect-game pitcher, just ahead of Germán's 5.10 mark in 2023.
Cone Makes It Three
David Cone throws the Yankees' third perfect game, on Yogi Berra Day at Yankee Stadium, with Larsen throwing the ceremonial first pitch.
Germán Suspended 81 Games
MLB suspends Germán 81 games under the league's domestic violence policy, stemming from a September 2019 incident. He doesn't appeal, agrees to counseling and a donation to Sanctuary for Families, and misses the rest of 2019, all of the shortened 2020 season, and returns to the club in February 2021.
Ten Runs Allowed Against Seattle
Six days before the perfect game, Germán is charged with 10 runs on eight hits in just 3.1 innings, dropping his record to 4-5 with a 5.10 ERA.
27 Up, 27 Down in Oakland
Germán retires all 27 Athletics he faces in an 11-0 Yankees win at the Oakland Coliseum -- the 24th perfect game in MLB history and the first by a Yankee since Cone in 1999.
Germán Enters Alcohol Treatment
Five weeks after the perfect game, Germán voluntarily enters inpatient treatment for alcohol abuse and is placed on MLB's restricted list, ending his season at 5-7 with a 4.56 ERA.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the final score of Domingo Germán's perfect game?
The Yankees beat the Athletics 11-0 on June 28, 2023, at the Oakland Coliseum. The 11 runs of support made it the highest-scoring perfect game in MLB history, surpassing the 10 runs the Giants scored behind Matt Cain's 2012 perfect game.
Was Domingo Germán's perfect game at Yankee Stadium?
No. Germán threw it on the road at the Oakland Coliseum against the Athletics, in front of an announced crowd of 12,479. All three of the Yankees' prior perfect games (Larsen, Wells, Cone) happened at Yankee Stadium, making Germán's the first thrown away from home.
How many perfect games have the Yankees thrown?
Four -- more than any other franchise in MLB history. Don Larsen (1956 World Series), David Wells (1998), David Cone (1999), and Domingo Germán (2023).
What happened to Domingo Germán after the perfect game?
About five weeks later, on August 2, 2023, Germán voluntarily entered inpatient treatment for alcohol abuse and was placed on MLB's restricted list, ending his season. He had also served an 81-game suspension in 2020 under MLB's domestic violence policy, stemming from a 2019 incident.
How many pitches did Domingo Germán throw in his perfect game?
99 pitches, 72 of them for strikes -- 51 curveballs, 30 fastballs averaging 92.5 mph, 17 changeups, and a single sinker. He struck out nine, with 11 groundouts and seven flyouts accounting for the rest.