HOUSTON — New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone vividly remembers the poise and confidence 16-year-old Jasson Domínguez displayed when he watched him take batting practice at the team’s academy in the Dominican Republic in 2019.
“Right then he got your attention,” Boone said. “It was like, it’s a 16-year-old kid [and] you see the skill set right in front of you. He had that kind of easy smile to him, handles himself really well.”
Domínguez wowed everyone Friday night, hitting a two-run homer off Houston ace Justin Verlander in his first major league at-bat, an early highlight in New York’s 6-2 win.
At just 20 years, 206 days old, Domínguez became the youngest Yankees player to homer in his first game. He was the first Yankees player to go deep in his initial big league at-bat since Aaron Judge on Aug. 13, 2016.
Additionally, it was just the second time a player homered off a reigning Cy Young Award winner in his first at-bat, according to ESPN Stats & Information. The other was Marcus Thames — also for the Yankees — on June 10, 2002, off Randy Johnson.
After Domínguez swatted his opposite-field home run to the short porch in left off a three-time Cy Young Award winner twice his age, TV cameras panned to his family, who screamed and jumped around after watching the ball leave the yard for a 3-0 lead in the first inning.
Four years after Boone saw him taking batting practice as a teenager, the highly touted prospect was a huge hit in his big league debut. The switch-hitting outfielder and another promising youngster, catcher Austin Wells, were called up from the minors by the last-place Yankees when rosters expanded Friday.
“Everyone’s excited for them and excited to see them,” Boone said before the game. “Both [are] talented guys who earned this opportunity, and looking forward to watching them go spread their wings and continue to develop and hopefully see some good things.”
Domínguez is expected to be the team’s everyday center fielder after Harrison Bader was claimed off waivers by the Cincinnati Reds, and Boone said Wells will also play a lot over the last month of the season.
“When I heard the news, it was a special moment,” Domínguez said in Spanish through a translator before the game. “Just to be here, very excited. Happy to be right here today, and it’s a special day.”
Wells is regarded more for his bat than his defense, but he’s hoping to show he can be a valuable contributor in both areas in the majors.
“I’m here to do that as well and play and help the team win,” he said. “So, that’s my goal and if I can do it in any way, I’ll do it any way.”
Expectations have been high for Domínguez since he received a $5.1 million bonus when he signed with the Yankees. His unique combination of strength and speed at such a young age earned him a catchy nickname: The Martian.
But he said he doesn’t feel any added pressure because of that.
“I haven’t really been paying too much attention to all that, all the comments and all the information about me,” he said. “I’m not much on social media. I’m not reading a lot of the different articles that are written. I just try to focus on what I can do and try to play my game and better myself so that I can fulfill whatever expectation there is being the best I can be.”
Domínguez became the youngest player to appear in a game for the Yankees since 19-year-old pitcher José Rijo in July 1984 — and the youngest position player since 20-year-old outfielder Stan Javier in April 1984.
Boone is certainly aware of the expectations people have for Domínguez and believes he’ll live up to them.
“I think he’s going to be a really good player,” Boone said. “I really do. [He’s] not a finished product. And we’ll see how his journey goes. He’s obviously a very young man, super talented. I think when we look up in several years, we’re going to see a really good player in front of us and he gets to start to write that script, in the big leagues anyway, starting today.”
Domínguez joins the team after playing just nine games at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this season. He hit .419 with two doubles and 10 RBIs there after batting .254 with 15 homers and 66 RBIs in 109 games for Double-A Somerset.
The 24-year-old Wells singled off Verlander in his first plate appearance. Wells hit .254 with five homers and 20 RBIs in 33 games for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He was a first-round draft pick out of Arizona in 2020.
Judge, meanwhile, also got in on the action.
He became the fastest player in major league history to reach 250 home runs with a solo shot off Verlander in the fifth inning.
Judge reached the milestone in his 810th career game, besting Philadelphia slugger Ryan Howard, who did it in 2010 in his 855th game.
Ohtani, who doubled twice, fell into a 1-2 hole before launching his 12th homer near the pool deck in right to put the Dodgers up 14-11. He finished with four RBIs.
Tanner Scott worked a perfect ninth save in 11 chances.
The Dodgers roughed up Eduardo Rodriguez to take an 8-3 lead through three innings, but couldn’t hold it.
SUNRISE, Fla. — Brad Marchand scored on a deflected shot at 15:27 of overtime and the Florida Panthers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 on Friday night to cut their deficit in the Eastern Conference semifinal series to 2-1.
Florida erased deficits of 2-0 and 3-1, and that’s been almost impossible to do against Toronto this season.
By the numbers, it was all looking good for the Maple Leafs.
They were 30-3-0 when leading after the first period, including playoffs, the second-best record in the league.
They were 38-8-2, the league’s third-best record when scoring first.
They had blown only 11 leads all season, none in the playoffs.
They were 44-3-1 in games where they led by two goals or more.
Combine all that with Toronto having won all 11 of its previous best-of-seven series when taking a 2-0 lead at home, Florida being 0-5 in series where it dropped both Games 1 and 2, and leaguewide, teams facing 0-2 deficits come back to win those series only about 14% of the time.
But Marchand — a longtime Toronto playoff nemesis from his days in Boston — got the biggest goal of Florida’s season, rendering all those numbers moot for now.
The Leafs got two goals that deflected in off of Panthers defensemen: Tavares’ second goal nicked the glove of Gustav Forsling on its way past Bobrovsky for a 3-1 lead, and Rielly’s goal redirected off Seth Jones’ leg to tie it with 9:04 left in the third.
Knies scored 23 seconds into the game, the second time Toronto had a 1-0 lead in the first minute of this series. Tavares made it 2-0 at 5:57 and just like that, the Panthers were in trouble.
A diving Barkov threw the puck at the night and saw it carom in off a Toronto stick to get Florida on the board — only for Tavares to score again early in the second for a 3-1 Leafs lead.
Florida needed a break. It came.
Reinhart was credited with a goal after Woll thought he covered up the puck following a scrum in front of the net. But after review, it was determined the puck had crossed the line. Florida had life, the building was loud again and about a minute later, Verhaeghe tied it at 3-3.
Gadjovich made it 4-3 late in the second, before Rielly tied it midway through the third.
The NHL Department of Player Safety announced the fine of $7,813, the maximum allowed under the collective bargaining agreement, after a disciplinary hearing with him.
Roy attempted to play the puck while it was airborne but made contact with Frederic’s head instead, resulting in a laceration for the Oilers forward.
Frederic briefly exited the game before making a quick return to the ice. Edmonton, however, failed to capitalize on the ensuing five-minute power play but won not long after on a goal by Leon Draisaitl from Connor McDavid.
Vegas trails the best-of-seven series 2-0 with Game 3 on Saturday night at Edmonton.
Information from The Associated Press and Field Level Media was used in this report.
