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The Yankees were still pinching themselves, the sights and sounds of a once-in-a-lifetime forever moment for virtually all of them from Corey Kluber’s Wednesday night no-hitter still dancing in their hearts and minds.

On The Day After, when the Yankees needed to find a way to come down from Cloud 9, the ball and the moment belonged to Domingo German.

And German lifted them all back up to Cloud 9.

German enjoyed a no-hitter … until Nick Solak singled with one out in the first inning.

No one was complaining after he surrendered five other hits across seven shutout innings in a masterful 2-0 victory over the Rangers to complete a 7-3 road trip.

“It’s kinda tough following up a no-hitter, after Corey Kluber, what he did,” Aaron Judge said, “but Domingo was right there.”

Even in a no-no season without reason or offense, it is easy to fantasize about what this Yankees rotation can be if Luis Severino can remember how to be Luis Severino once he returns:

Gerrit Cole and the Comeback Kids.

Asked about the rotation, Aaron Boone said: “They can pitch, man.”

Kluber, remember, had to come back from an injury-plagued nightmare where he pitched eight innings over the past two seasons.

Severino, progressing nicely, is not far from joining fellow Tommy John All-Stars Jameson Taillon and Jordan Montgomery.

German (4-2, 3.05 ERA) has fashioned a different kind of comeback — a mental, emotional and spiritual comeback from an 81-game domestic violence suspension that cost him the 2020 season and the respect of the clubhouse.

He apologized to his team and teammates and has let his right arm do the talking since an April demotion to the alternate site.

A 1-2-3-4 of Cole-Kluber-German-Severino in some kind of order will never rival Andy Pettitte-Roger Clemens-Mike Mussina-David Wells, but against all the Hole in the Bat Gangs in MLB, it should have a chance to be formidable.

If you subscribe to the belief that pitching can be contagious, Boone will be holding out hope for Taillon and Montgomery as well.

German, armed with a treacherous changeup — he threw a career-high 26 of them Thursday — was at his best laughing in the face of danger in the fourth.

With Rangers on first and second and no outs, he fell behind 3-0 to David Dahl. And then struck him out on that treacherous changeup before inducing a 5-4-3 double play from Isiah Kiner-Falefa.

“Anytime he gets behind in the count,” Boone said, “he’s just so unpredictable, because he truly has really, really good command of all his pitches, so it’s hard to really gear up for anything, whether you’re ahead in the count, behind in the count, whatever it may be. … It really complements the rest of his stuff really well.”

A short-hopped backhand stab inside the line at third that DJ LeMahieu turned into an inning-ending force at second aided German in the fifth. German blew a 94 mph two-seamer past Gallo in the sixth.

He retired the last eight batters he faced before giving way after 87 pitches to Chad Green in the eighth inning.

“Going into this game, we talked about how effective the changeup could be, executing down and away,” German said.

All he needed was pinch-hit RBI singles from Gio Urshela and Judge in the seventh off southpaw reliever John King. And another smoke-filled close from Aroldis Chapman.

“Everybody wants to have a no-hitter or perfect game,” German said, “I think I have the qualities to do so. I still plan on playing this game for a long time, so hopefully I get a chance in the future.”

If he can be the Yankees’ Dominican Dandy, that would be perfect, too.

This story originally appeared on: NyPost - Author:Steve Serby