In Yankees’ loss, Domingo German was actually good, but should they worry about Michael King?

The good news for the Yankees in Tuesday’s 4-1 loss to the Phillies was that starting pitcher Domingo German looked good, much better than his final line of 4.2 innings, four runs. The bad news was that key reliever Michael King did not.

Both are important pitchers for the Yankees, one now a rotation fixture due to injuries and one a reliever so key to the team’s first-half success last year that his July elbow fracture might have been the moment that the season turned.

Making his first start of the season, German showed an excellent curveball and changeup in striking out eight batters in 4.2 innings, mostly on off-speed pitches. He didn’t walk a batter, and allowed solo home runs to Kyle Schwarber and Brandon Marsh.

“I thought he was really good,” Aaron Boone said. “His secondary stuff was terrific. Bad pitch to Schwarber. Kind of a get-me-over heater to the wrong guy to be doing that [to].”

Of the curveball, Boone said, “When it’s good it goes forward a long time, and even the shorter one seems like hitters don’t pick it up for a while. And I thought he had his good one tonight.”

Simply put, if German pitches the way he did in this game, he will be everything the Yankees need in a back-end starter. He left in the fifth trailing 2-0, having surrendered only the two solo homers.

The other two runs on his line came courtesy of King, who entered and allowed back-to-back RBI singles. It was his second subpar outing of the young season.

“I haven’t been getting it done,” King said. “Mechanically, it feels like my timing is a little off. I would rather give up my own runs than [Domingo's]. I feel like I spoiled a pretty good start and blew the game open.”

In his first appearance last season, which came in the extra innings of an Opening Day win against Boston, King came out firing 97 mph with his sinker and 96 with his four-seam fastball.

On Tuesday, the sinker averaged 94 mph and the four-seam 93.8 mph (his season averages in 2022 were 95.5 for the sinker and 96.4 for the four-seam).

Some pitchers become defensive when asked about velocity, but King acknowledged the drop-off, and the lack of late life and bite.

“I feel like trying to generate power early in my mechanics instead of having late hand speed,” King said. “I feel like that affects the late movement on it.”

Both King and Boone said that the elbow was not an issue.

“Luckily, my elbow has been feeling great, so it doesn’t have anything to do with that,” King said. “My velo was there in my first couple games in spring training, and it has slowly gone down from that. I don’t know if it’s a dead arm or just me trying to muscle up to get the velo, because I’m noticing that. So I think it’s just more a quick mechanical change that I’ve got to get comfortable with.”

Said Boone: “I thought his sinker was good tonight. It was harder than his four-seam, and it was crisp. And then not quite that Michael King nasty slider tonight. It was kind of a little flatter, just enough.”

As an illustration, Boone pointed to the 1-2 sinker that King threw to Trea Turner, the first batter he faced. The pitch was outside the strike zone; Turner reached for it and drove it to right field.

In 2022, that might have been one of the filthy strikeout pitches that made King a star. On this night, it was just. … lacking.

“Turner didn’t hit him hard, but that’s usually a pitch that guys don’t handle when he’s ahead like that, off the plate,” Boone said. “But it was flat enough that he was able to touch it a little bit. We’ve just got to get him synched up. I think that’s all it is. I’m hoping that’s all it is.”