CLEVELAND — The Yankees kept on offering free passes to the Guardians, and eventually it made for just enough kindling to burn them. 

Domingo German was the main culprit, walking five batters in a rough three-inning start, but the bullpen added four more, one of which came around as the winning run in the Guardians’ 3-2 victory Monday night in the series opener at Progressive Field. 

German walked the leadoff batter in three of his four innings and matched a career-high with five walks overall.

He did not record any strikeouts and threw 87 pitches by the time he was mercifully removed with no outs and two men on in the third inning of a 2-2 game. 

The Guardians took the lead in the seventh inning off Yankees reliever Ian Hamilton, who walked the first two batters he faced.

One of them, Steven Kwan, came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Josh Naylor that ended up deciding the game. 

The Yankees had a prime chance to tie it back up in the eighth inning, when Gleyber Torres led off with a sinking line drive that got past center fielder Myles Straw for a triple.

But Guardians reliever James Karinchak stranded Torres at third by getting Aaron Judge to pop up and then striking out Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton.

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Karinchak was emphatic upon carving up the heart of the Yankees’ order, pounding his chest as he jogged off the mound. 

Emmanuel Clase then retired the side in the ninth inning to close it out. 

The game had started much differently for the Yankees.

Torres wasted no time staying hot, drilling Shane Bieber’s first pitch of the game for a double.

Judge then walked and Rizzo singled to load the bases. 

Stanton followed by drilling a double off the left-field wall — it came smoking off his bat at 116.3 mph — to give the Yankees an early 2-0 lead before Bieber had recorded an out. 

But the Yankees missed a chance to pile on as Bieber escaped the jam without allowing another run.

After Stanton’s double, the Guardians ace went on to retire 19 of the next 23 batters through the end of the seventh inning. 

The Guardians got back a run in the second inning thanks to German’s own fielding miscue.

Andres Gimenez led off by popping up a bunt to the right of the mound, but German dropped it and then bobbled the ball, allowing Gimenez to reach safely.

The ex-Met then stole second and took third on a groundout, allowing him to score on Will Brennan’s sacrifice fly to make it 2-1. 

German later began the fourth inning by issuing back-to-back walks before Mike Zunino roped a double down the third-base line to tie the game at two. 

Colten Brewer came in and walked the first batter he faced on four pitches, but recovered by getting a pair of ground balls — the second going for a double play — to get out of the jam without the Guardians taking the lead. 

Brewer, pitching for the first time since April 2, went on to give the Yankees a big lift, recording nine quick outs on 28 pitches to bridge the gap to the seventh inning.