Domingo German strong as Yankees top Mariners, 7-2

Domingo German followed up his first major-league win with the longest and best outing of his brief career Tuesday night. The rookie righthander allowed two runs (one earned) in seven innings and four Yankees homered in a 7-2 victory over the Mariners before 45,122 at Yankee Stadium.

German (2-4, 4.77 ERA) overcame a first-inning unearned run by retiring 19 batters in a row between the first and seventh innings. He gave up two hits, walked none and struck out nine in a 96-pitch gem in a game that took only 2 hours, 28 minutes.

“He’s really talented,” Aaron Boone said. “He’s got three real ly good pitches. I think the question is, ‘Can he be a full-time starter?’ And he continues, it seems like with every outing, proving that he is capable of that.

“I thought his fastball command improved as the night went on,” Boone said. “I even kicked around sending him back out there for the eighth because he was just so efficient.”

Giancarlo Stanton, Miguel Andujar, Aaron Hicks and Gleyber Torres homered for the Yankees. But the story was German, who continues to solidify a spot in the rotation even as general manager Brian Cashman searches for another starting pitcher before the trade deadline.

Dee Gordon opened the game with a double to right-center. The Mariners didn’t earn another base until there was one out in the seventh.

After Gordon’s double, Jean Segura hit a grounder to short. Didi Gregorius would have had a play on the speedy Gordon heading to third if he had not bobbled the ball for an error.

Mitch Haniger followed with a liner to third that Andujar leaped for and deflected to Gregorius, who threw to second for the game’s first out as Gordon scored to give Seattle a 1-0 lead.

German struck out Nelson Cruz and Kyle Seager to end the first and Ryon Healy to begin the next inning. By then, the score was tied at 1 on Stanton’s first-pitch home run.

Stanton, who went 4-for-5 Monday in the Yankees’ previous game in Washington, hadn’t hit well at home (.212). But he continued his fine work against lefthanders. Including the blast to Monument Park in centerfield, Stanton was 25-for-70 (.357), with nine of his 17 home runs against lefties.

German set down the Mariners 1-2-3 in the second . . . and the third . . . and the fourth . . . and the fifth . . . all the way through the sixth, by which time the Yankees had taken a 5-1 lead.

It came in a four-batter span of the fifth inning. Greg Bird led off with a walk before Andujar hit a breaking ball off his shoetops into the leftfield bleachers for his ninth home run and a 3-1 lead. Clint Frazier singled before Hicks sent a high shot into the visiting bullpen in left-center to make it 5-1. It was his 10th homer.

German struck out Mitch Haniger to open the seventh before Cruz socked a first-pitch homer to left for the Mariners’ second hit and run. Was German flustered? Hardly. He came right back to strike out Seager on a 96-mph fastball on the inside corner before getting ahead of Healy 0-and-2 and inducing an inning-ending pop-up to short.

“It’s been a dream of mine to pitch in the big leagues,” German said through a translator. “To open games and be a starter. I had a lot of experience in the minor leagues to show the kind of starter I could be and trusting myself. I just want to keep pitching and finish my career here with the Yankees.”