New York Yankees starter Domingo Herman pitches a perfect no hitter against the Oakland A’s at the Oakland Coliseum on Wed Jun 28, 2023 (@Yankees image)

New York (AL) (44-36). 000 016 103. – 11. 11. 0

Oakland (21-61). 000 000 000 – 0. 0. 3

Time: 2:30

Attendance: 12,479

Wednesday, June 28 Oakland

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–JP Sears, whom the A’s acquired in the deal that sent Frankie Montás to New York, started the day at 1-5, 4.10. He went seven innings in each of his last two starts but lost both of them, allowing 16 earned runs in 14 innings.

That comes to an ERA of 3.82. Tonight, he was lights out for 3-2/3 inning and got lit up after that. He ended up pitching 4+ frames and allowing seven runs, six earned and three posthumous.He walked three and struck out five, allowing five hits, including a home run. He threw 92 pitches, 55 for strikes. He took the loss, leaving him with a record of 1-6, 4.43.

The Bronx Bombers entrusted mound duties to Domingo Germán, who brought a 4-5, 5.10 record with him. The 30 year old righty needed two strikeouts to reach 500, a milestone he reached in the bottom of the first and passed when caught Jonah Bride looking at a third strike to end the second.

But that was nothing to what was to come. He threw a perfect game. Nine innings. 99 pitches. 72 for strikes. No hits. No walks. No nothing. He ended the day at 5-5, 4.54.

Neither pitcher allowed a hit until the top of the fourth, when Giancarlo Stanton slammed a two out 422 foot shot into the left center field seats, his seventh round tripper of the year. Harrison Badere followed that with a double against the 367 foot sign in left, but Sears recovered to fan Josh Donaldson and hold the damage down to one run.

The damage increased by six runs in the next frame. Isiah Kiner-Falefa led off with a walk. Kyle Higashioka drove. him in with a two bagger to left. Anthony Volpe laid down a bunt and beat it out for a single. Sears had fielded the ball and then threw it past Noda at first for an error that allowed Volpe to reach second and Higashioka to score.

DJ LeMahieu singled Volpe home, and Gleyber Torres walked. It was Noda’s turn to make an error at first. He failed to handle Rizzo’s ground ball, loading the bases and sending Sears to the showers. His replacement was Shintaro Fujinami, who promptly gave up a two run single to Stanton. That and Kiner-Falefa’s two out single brought the score to 7-0.

The recently acquired and promoted Yacksel Ríos opened the top of the seventh, threw three balls to Stanton, and left with an as yet undisclosed injury, and left the game. Austin Pruitt replaced him and delivered the fourth ball to the Yankees’ right fielder. Josh Donaldson’s sac fly to center plated Stanton. The run was charged to Ríos.

The story had long since ceased to be about offense, much less who would win the game. The question was if the Athletics would manage to get a man on base.

San Long. pitched the top of the ninth and gave up three runs, but that was just a footnote to the main story.

Germán had thrown 93 pitches over eight innings, and the closest an A’s batter had come to reaching first was when Germán threw ball three to Jonah Bride before he grounded out to third to end the inning.

Kemp grounded out to short. Noda flew out to right. Rooker grounded out to third. The Yankees’ number 0 had thrown a perfect game.

The series winds up tomorrow, Thursday, with a rubber game that is likely to be anticlimactic, starting at 12:37. The Yanks will send Clarke Schmidt (2-6, 4.32) against an as yet to be announced Athletics’ hurler.

Major league baseball is important to Oakland and the rest of the East Bay, but it’s not the only baseball game in town, and it still won’t be even if the crew that lost a perfect game by the lopsided score of 11-0 today camps out in the back yard of Las Vegas’s Tropicana casino.

We still will have the college, high school, youth leagues, little leagues, and sand lots (not to mention the independent Pecos League) that are the seedbeds of the big leaguers and fans of the future. One of the unsung heroes of that organic infrastructure of the sport is Lou Profumo (1938-2021), one time Red Sox farm hand and longtime youth and women’s baseball and softball coach.

I received word today that, after a two year delay, a playing field in the area he loved will be dedicated to him. The ceremony will take place on Friday morning, July 7, at 10:00 o’clock. The location is the San Leandro Ballpark, Teagarden and Fairway Streets, in that city.

It can be reached from the Marina Boulevard exit of I-880. If baseball is to survive, it will be thanks to the selfless efforts of the Lou Profumos of this world and not because of the nefarious scheming of the corporate entities looking to line their pockets as they cry poverty all the way to the bank.