Pitching a perfect game in the big leagues is an incredible rare feat. Only 23 pitchers had accomplished it in MLB history before Domingo German early Thursday morning.
Yet, when looking at some of the context around German and his performance heading into his historic start in Oakland, a perfect game somehow seems even more improbable.
For starters, German was coming off a brutal outing in which he was lit up for 10 runs in just 3.1 innings of work against the Mariners, allowing four home runs in a blowout loss. Less than a week later, he was perfect.
Per ESPN Stats & Info, German is the first player in MLB history to throw a perfect game after allowing double-digit runs in his previous outing.
That disastrous outing against Seattle had raised German's June ERA to a bloated 8.50. Then, in his final start of the month, he recorded the fourth perfect game in Yankees history.
German's flop against the Mariners had also increased his season ERA to 5.10, making him just the second pitcher in league history to throw a perfect game while holding an ERA of 5.00 or more. The other? David Wells in 1998, when he threw the second perfect game in Yankee history. Together, Wells and German, along with David Cone and Don Larsen, teamed up to make the Yankees the franchise with the most perfect games in baseball history, as German's perfection broke a tie with the White Sox.
With his perfect game, German also became the first Dominican-born player to pitch a perfecto in the major leagues, and is just the third pitcher born outside of the United States to achieve that feat, joining Dennis Martinez and Felix Hernandez, who had thrown the last perfect game in 2012 before German.
Add it all up, and German's perfect game feels all the more improbable.
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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