Major League Baseball nearly witnessed its second combined no-hitter in a matter of days. Whereas on Friday it was the Los Angeles Dodgers blanking the San Diego Padres, Sunday afternoon saw the New York Yankees almost accomplish the feat against the Cleveland Indians.
Domingo German, making his first big-league start, twirled six no-hit innings before being lifted over pitch-count concerns. Before Germán departed, he generated 16 whiffs on 84 pitches. That figure included 13 swings-and-misses on offspeed pitches, including seven on 24 changeups. German finished his afternoon with nine strikeouts and just two walks issued.
German, thrust into the rotation due to Jordan Montgomery's injury, had previously topped out at 61 pitches in 2018.
From there, the Yankees turned things over to Dellin Betances, who struck out two of the three batters he faced in the seventh inning. Betances returned for the eighth inning, but gave up a ground ball single to Yonder Alonso that found its way through the overshift. Betances later left amid boos after allowing Cleveland to take a 1-0 lead.
The joint no-hitter would have represented the first in Yankees history. The franchise has witnessed 11 solo no-hitters, with the most recent being David Cone's perfect game in July 1999 versus the Montreal Expos. Additionally, it would have been the third time the Yankees had no-hit the Cleveland franchise -- the previous two times, however, came in 1938 and 1951.