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.”

That didn’t mean the rest of the cramped visiting dugout followed suit, though inside of it there were varying levels of superstition.

“I don’t really believe in all that,” Anthony Rizzo said. “Especially if you get weird. You just do your normal stuff. It was normal for us. A lot of guys didn’t know he was throwing a perfect game.”

“I was superstitious from an offensive standpoint, to be honest,” Gerrit Cole said. “[Analyst Zac Fieroh] and I stood in the same spot for the six-spot [in the top of the fifth], and I didn’t move at all. I didn’t really get nervous till the eighth. I’ve seen him take no-hitters deep before.”

“I was just not going to look too many people in the eye and everyone do your thing,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Trying to be normal.”

Boone chuckled.

“The only thing I said with two outs was should we bring [Isiah Kiner-Falefa] in a little bit [in left field] to take away the bloop,” he said. “Luis [Rojas] is like, ‘No.’ I’m like, ‘Alright, I’m just going to shut up again.’”

Blake agreed with Rizzo that he didn’t think everyone knew until around the seventh inning that German was working on a perfect game.

“Then after that everybody was starting to look around a little bit and started to sense we were getting close,” Blake said. “When he goes out in the eighth and gets the 1-2-3 again, you’re like, ‘Oh, man, here we go.’ That was cool.”

Blake started to believe it could be possible after the fifth inning. There was still a long way to go, but German was at 62 pitches and had not been hit very hard at all. From that point on, he “essentially’” began counting the outs to 27.

The fifth inning was also when German had to wait through a roughly 25-minute top of the frame as the Yankees offense finally exploded. Taking advantage of having the bullpen in right-field foul territory in Oakland, German decided to go throw a handful of pitches to stay loose during the rally.

“A lot of stadiums, you either have to play catch in front of the dugout or go underneath,” Blake said. “I think that actually helped the circumstances of getting on the slope and keeping his delivery together before he had to go back out there. And also being a little cool [Wednesday] night, that was big to keep him in rhythm body-wise.”

German has flirted with perfection or no-hitters in the past. Boone pointed to German’s start at Fenway Park on July 25, 2021, when he brought a no-hitter into the eighth inning against the Red Sox before losing it on a double by Alex Verdugo.

The common thread from those starts when German looks untouchable?

“He does a really nice job of being on the attack and getting weak contact early,” Blake said. “When he’s going at his best, he’s really efficient in the strike zone, so the pitch counts do end up pretty low through four, five, six innings. He put himself in a position to go after it. A lot of times, when you have a high strikeout guy, you probably get into a lot of three-ball counts and you don’t put yourself in a position to finish that.”

The 24th perfect game in MLB history and the fourth in Yankees franchise history had some extra meaning for German. His uncle, Saint Jacques Gean Louis, died a few days earlier and left German with a heavy heart.

But the 30-year-old remained with the team, and the circumstances made the start even more special.

“It was an emotional couple days,” Blake said. “He really liked the fact that all his teammates were here to support him outside of the game itself. Everybody understood what he was going through and had his best interest in mind. The fact that he stayed with us and wanted to compete for the team, that meant a lot to the guys.

“It could go one of two ways there. The emotions can overwhelm you, you can have clouded thoughts and your mind’s not here. Or you can take that energy and channel it into really tight focus on the task at hand. I thought he did a really good job of that.”

???????? Join us this Thursday, July 6, for a live recording of The Show Podcast with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman previewing the All-Star Game. The guys will be joined by a special guest: former Yankees manager Joe Torre. The show will be at The Ainsworth in Midtown (45 East 33rd St.); the podcast gets started at 6 p.m. (doors open at 5). The first 50 attendees get a free drink. RSVP now for this great event. 

Most perfect games have at least one spectacular defensive gem that helps keep it alive.

The closest thing to that Wednesday night was Anthony Rizzo’s diving stop to his left on a ground ball in the fifth inning, getting to one knee and flipping to German for the out.

“It’s just a play to my backhand,” Rizzo said. “It was hit hard. But it was early in the game. It was the fifth inning, so it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, this is the play!’ It was just playing the game at that point. Obviously looking back, it was a nice play. But his performance outshadowed everything.”

Want to catch a game? The Yankees schedule with links to buy tickets can be found here.

German’s run-in with history came in what might have been the Yankees’ second-to-last (or possibly last) visit to Oakland Coliseum.

The Athletics are expected to be relocated to Las Vegas, possibly as early as 2025 after their stadium lease in Oakland runs out at the end of the 2024 season.

The move has been a long time coming. The Coliseum, a baseball field that is squeezed into a football stadium, is a bit outdated. But it also has some charm and nostalgia, at least for one Yankee who played there Thursday for the 24th time in his career.

“It’s a little different, [but] I kind of like this ballpark,” Isiah Kiner-Falefa said this week inside the visiting clubhouse — which is actually more spacious than some of the other stops the Yankees make on their road schedule. “It kind of gives you a change of scenery and a different atmosphere that you don’t really get anywhere else.

“Growing up in Hawaii, I watched a lot of Raider games. So it just holds that sentimental [factor] to me where it reminds me of waking up on Sunday morning and seeing the infield on TV when you’re watching the Raiders. It’s pretty cool.

“But it’s kind of sad. I feel like this is a great baseball town. It’s sad to see the way it’s ending. But you look back at the history and the great players that have been here. You can only just think about all the good that’s been here.”

The Yankees and A’s drew crowds of 13,050, 12,479 and 14,718 during their three-game series at the Coliseum. They were three of the better-attended games in Oakland this season, but overall the crowds have been sparse, responding to the lackluster product the A’s have put on the field.

“The fan base here was always great when I was here,” said Josh Donaldson, who broke into the majors with the Athletics in 2010. “At the end of the day, that’s the business side of baseball that isn’t always pretty.

“From playing here, there’s a lot of diehards. It might not always be sold-out, but the people that are huge fans of this team, they bleed it and they live it. You respect the fans here.”