OAKLAND, Calif. — When Corey Kluber threw a no-hitter for the Yankees at Globe Life Field in 2021, Matt Blake was stuck watching from his COVID-19 quarantine in a hotel room in Tampa.
The pitching coach’s view was much better for Domingo German’s perfect game on Wednesday night at Oakland Coliseum.
And though baseball tradition holds that a pitcher should be left alone in the dugout while he is working on a perfect game or no-hitter, Blake broke taboo and continued to interact with German between innings because he sensed it was what the right-hander wanted.
“[Wednesday] night, he got into the rhythm of wanting information in between each inning and making sure we went over the first three hitters,” Blake said Thursday. “That actually helped everybody to stay on task and not just sit there and think about what was going on. Staying focused on the process of getting outs and what we’re throwing and how we’re throwing it, I thought it kept everybody grounded.”
