The Yankees’ margin for error without Aaron Judge is thinner than the 6-foot-2, 181-pound Domingo German.
And so German and the Yankees’ bullpen, in the biggest moments of a beautiful Saturday night, consistently danced their way out of danger in a well-played 3-1 victory over the Red Sox in front of a sellout crowd of 46,061 in The Bronx.
The Yankees (38-28) have stayed afloat without their team captain, winning three of six games since Judge went down, and on Sunday night they will try to win the series against their biggest rivals.
They managed just six hits, but two were solo home runs, which proved to be the difference. The biggest Yankees at-bats came from Gleyber Torres, Willie Calhoun, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Kyle Higashioka, a sign of the type of offensive contributions the club is now relying upon.
The Yankees did not need much from their offense, though, because German surrendered little.
The lanky right-hander pitched his best when he found himself in danger and he gave up just one run in six innings. German has allowed two or fewer runs in six of his past seven starts and has lowered his ERA from 5.54 at the end of April to 3.49.
After he was pulled, Wandy Peralta took a one-run lead in the seventh and defended it well.
The lefty lost a 14-pitch battle with Masataka Yoshida for a two-out walk, and then walked Justin Turner, which prompted a high-stakes battle with Yankees-killer Rafael Devers and a mound visit from bullpen coach Mike Harkey. Pitching coach Matt Blake is away from the club after the passing of his mother-in-law.
Peralta buckled down and induced a ground out from Devers, who already had homered once in the game and nearly homered a second time.
Tommy Kahnle hit Adam Duvall with his first pitch of the eighth inning, but did not allow him to reach second.
Clay Holmes, who has given up one run in his past 17 games, allowed the tying run to reach the batter’s box, but he struck out Yoshida and got Justin Turner to ground out for his eighth save of the season.
The Yankees did not manage a baserunner against Boston starter Tanner Houck until Torres opened the bottom of the fourth with a home run to right, his 11th homer of the season, which is best among AL second basemen.
The Red Sox tied it up in the sixth, when Devers blasted his second home run in as many nights, to center field, but the Yankees responded quickly.
In the bottom of the inning, Calhoun — who opened the season with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and has been a nice find — showed why he was hitting third in the order. The right fielder smacked a go-ahead home run to right, the Yankees’ third hit of the game, but second homer.
Manager Aaron Boone’s bunch padded the lead in the seventh inning, when Kiner-Falefa reached second base on a single and a fielder’s choice, and Higashioka’s base hit up the middle drove him in.
Those three runs proved to be plenty for German and the bullpen. German was touched up only to begin the sixth inning, when Devers hammered his homer. Otherwise, he scattered six hits and walked two while striking out five to continue an often dominant stretch.
The 30-year-old encountered trouble a few times, but always pitched his way out. In the second inning, Boston had runners on second and third when Kiké Hernandez’s line-out ended the threat.
In the third, Justin Turner reached third base with two outs, and Devers blasted an opposite-field shot, but left fielder Jake Bauers reached the warning track, leaped and reached high to catch the inning’s third out while smacking against the wall.
In German’s final inning, Duvall followed Devers’ homer with a single and swiped second with one out. But once again German escaped, striking out Christian Arroyo and getting a foul out from Reese McGwire.
The Red Sox stranded 11 runners, consistently frustrated by Yankees pitchers who couldn’t — and didn’t — slip up.