TORONTO — Domingo German escaped a sticky-substance ejection last month, but not on Tuesday night.
The Yankees right-hander was ejected from the 6-3 win over the Blue Jays before the bottom of the fourth inning after failing his foreign-substance check with umpires as he headed out to the mound.
Crew chief James Hoye told a pool reporter that German’s right hand was the “stickiest hand I’ve ever felt” and “extremely shiny,” adding that the substance was “definitely not rosin.” German, meanwhile, insisted that he only used the rosin bag on the mound all game.
“It was definitely just the rosin bag,” German, who had retired all nine hitters before the ejection, said through an interpreter. “Sweat, rosin bag, I don’t need any extra help to grab a baseball.”
The ejection comes with an automatic 10-game suspension, during which the Yankees will not be able to replace German on the roster.
“Obviously it’s not OK,” manager Aaron Boone said. “But we’re also talking about a very — what is the line? … Ultimately, that’s Domingo’s responsibility to make sure we’re in a better position there.”
It was the same umpiring crew — led by Hoye as the crew chief — on Tuesday as the one that took issue with German’s sticky hand on April 15 against the Twins at Yankee Stadium. In that case — despite umps asking German to remove rosin after the top of the third inning and still having some on his pinky finger to start the fourth — German was allowed to stay in the game.
The umps did not give German the same mercy on Tuesday.
“We all had the same opinion: shiny, extremely sticky, and it’s the worst hand we’ve ever felt during a game,” Hoye said. “That wasn’t rosin. It was extremely sticky. And rosin usually is kind of like a little tackiness. This was sticky, as in my fingers had a hard time coming off his palm.”
After the game, German apologized to his teammates for putting them in a bad spot as an already thin bullpen had to cover six innings.
The first reliever in, Ian Hamilton, lasted just two-thirds of an inning before leaving with groin tightness that is expected to land him on the injured list.
Ron Marinaccio, pitching for the fourth time in six days, then worked the next inning and allowed the Blue Jays to tie the game with a three-run fifth.
Ryan Weber relieved Marinaccio and provided 2 ¹/₃ clutch innings to bridge the gap to Clay Holmes and Wandy Peralta, who each threw an inning to close it out.
“I gotta apologize to my teammates and my team,” German said. “I’m putting them in a tough position right now, understanding how much the bullpen has been used and what my plan was for tonight was to pitch.”
In the short-term the Yankees can fill German’s next turn through the rotation with Luis Severino on Sunday against the Reds. Severino made his second rehab start from a strained lat Tuesday with Double-A Somerset, throwing 3 ¹/₃ innings and 58 pitches.
The Yankees were expected to decide on Wednesday whether Severino was ready to join the rotation Sunday, but German’s suspension may leave them no other choice.
An off day on Monday should also help the Yankees rearrange their rotation to make up for German’s absence, though they will have to play a man short for the 10 games German is out.
“Not ideal, but nothing’s been ideal about the start of the season,” Boone said. “But I know what we’re going to do: we’re going to show up and play our butts off. I’ll sign up for that. I’ll sign up for going out there every day with this group.”