New York Yankees 6, Minnesota Twins 1
NEW YORK — Manager Rocco Baldelli of Minnesota was sure that Domingo Germán broke baseball’s “clean-hands doctrine.”
So, just before the fourth inning started on Saturday, Germán was yelled at by an umpire inches from his face. The New York Yankees pitcher was accused of having too much glue on his pitching hand, and the other team wanted him kicked out of the game.
“It was intense. There was a moment there where maybe I felt that things were going to get out hand,” Germán said through an interpreter.
Germán was able to stay in the game after a 5 1/2-minute break for inspection, discussion, and Baldelli’s ejection. He got his first 16 batters out, struck out a career-high 11 batters in 6 1/3 innings, and helped New York beat the Twins 6-1, ending their four-game win streak.
Germán had rosin on his hand. Crew chief James Hoye told him to wash it off, but Germán let some of it stay on his pinkie finger.
Early on, Kyle Higashioka and Anthony Rizzo hit home runs to give the Yankees a three-run lead. Giancarlo Stanton‘s two-run double helped the Yankees get back on track after their first two losses of the season.
Major League Baseball started cracking down on banned grip aids in June 2021, and last month it asked for more checks. Only two pitchers have been kicked off the team for using illegal substances: Héctor Santiago of Seattle and Caleb Smith of Arizona. Both will miss 10 games in 2021.
In his first two starts, Germán gave up six runs over 7 2/3 innings. He caught the attention of the Twins with his success in the early innings. In the first, he struck out all three batters with changeups.
Hoye told the 30-year-old right-hander in the middle of the third inning to take the rosin off during the routine checks.
“It was basically wash your hands,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
Before the fourth, Hoye checked on Germán. He saw rosin on Germán’s pinkie, so he called in second base umpire D.J. Reyburn for a second opinion. Hoye found that there was less stickiness than the last time he checked.
Then there was a long talk between Boone and the team’s translator, Marlon Abreu.
“I was able to explain it and tell him I have a rosin bag that’s in the area of the dugout where I sit, where I sit all the time,” Germán said.
“So then we got together and said, ‘Is this a foreign substance that affected the flight of the ball?’” Hoye said. “We didn’t feel it rose to the foreign substance standard of affecting the flight, affecting his pitching.”
Germán (1-1) didn’t give up a hit until his 66th pitch, when Christian Vázquez hit a single up the middle on a fastball with a 2-1 count. He got hit three times and then left to a big cheer. Lin-Manuel’s cousin José Miranda hit a double that scored a run, and the five-hitter was finished by Michael King.
In the fourth, after Hoye let Germán take the mound, Baldelli came out of the dugout and repeatedly jabbed an arm. He told Hoye that the umpire would have to throw out the manager, and bench coach Jayce Tingler took his place.
UP NEXT
The Yankees’ RHP Gerrit Cole (3-0) and the Twins’ RHP Pablo López (1-0) will start the last game of the series on Sunday.
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