Domingo German dominant in seven shutout innings as Yankees beat Orioles

BALTIMORE – Domingo German just might have rediscovered the form that made him the Yankees most impressive starter during the spring.

The timing couldn’t be better for the Yankees if that’s the case.

Turning in a second straight strong outing – this one flat-out dominant – German allowed three hits over seven innings of a 7-0 victory over the Orioles in front of 7,338 at Camden Yards.

German, backed by homers from Mike Ford, Clint Frazier and Gio Urshela, whose three-run blast in the third made it 5-0, completely baffled the Orioles with his fastball, curveball, changeup mix that helped him strike out six and walk one.

"The ball (was) going all over the place," said Giancarlo Stanton, who went 3-for-5. "He was on all cylinders tonight."

German, who did not allow an earned run all spring but laid two eggs to start this regular season, earning him a demotion to the alternate site, held the Orioles hitless until Ryan Mountcastle’s infield chopper to third with two outs in the fifth. German (2-2, 4.05) did not allow a runner in scoring position until Pedro Severino’s two-out single in the seventh gave the Orioles runners at first and second. But with his 92nd, and final, pitch of the night, German froze Mountcastle to end the inning and was demonstrably excited as he left the mound.

"I felt like, in a way, it let people know that I’m back," said German, back this season after serving an 81-game suspension for violating MLB’s domestic violence policy, which stemmed from an incident with his girlfriend in September 2019. "I feel better than before and I think I’m just getting started now."

The Yankees (11-13) outhit the Orioles, 12-4, including 10-0 heading to the bottom of the fifth.

"I think having good at-bats is contagious," Stanton said.

German essentially picked up where he left off in his previous start, last Thursday in Cleveland, when he recovered from a bad first inning – he allowed three runs (two earned) – to throw five scoreless innings, retiring 17 of the last 21 he faced.

He showed that kind of electric stuff throughout Wednesday’s game when he retired 14 of the first 15 batters he faced.

"I thought his sinker was really good and lively tonight," Aaron Boone said. "He ripped some really good ones that he brought back to the outside corner. And then he mixed, he pitched – good breaking ball, really good changeup. In command … a great tone-setter for the evening."

After German needed 11 pitches to set down the Orioles (10-14) in order in the bottom of the first, Ford gave the pitcher a 1-0 lead when he homered to the opposite field off Dean Kremer, called up from Baltimore’s alternate site earlier in the day. Kremer allowed six runs and 10 hits over 4 1/3 innings.

German retired the first four he faced before walking DJ Stewart on four pitches in the second. Kyle Higashioka, however, made a nice sliding catch in foul ground near the screen of a Pedro Severino pop-up and Mountcastle flied out.

DJ LeMahieu (2-for-5) singled with one out in the third, giving the second baseman 88 multi-hit games as a Yankee, the most in MLB since 2019. Stanton followed with a ground smash at the shortstop, Pat Valaika, who couldn’t handle it, for an infield single. Gleyber Torres (2-for-5) flared a hanging curveball to center to make it 2-0. A mound visit didn’t do much to settle Kremer, who promptly laid in a 2-and-1 cutter to Urshela (2-for-4), who hammered it well over the wall in left for his fourth homer.

Frazier, in a 2-for-42 slide, led off the fourth with a double to left-center but the outfielder, who later hit his first homer in the eighth to make it 7-0, committed the Little League sin of trying to advance to third on a grounder hit to short and was easily thrown out. That earned a noticeable look of disgust from Boone and a quick chat, on the end of the dugout opposite Boone, with bench coach Carlos Mendoza.

"It can’t happen," said Frazier, who didn’t make any excuses for the blunder. "And it’s not going to happen again."

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.