The way Domingo German had pitched in spring training to win the Yankees’ fifth starter job made his first regular-season start in 19 months a much-anticipated one.

But Sunday turned out to be a dud, and not just for the right-hander.

German gave up a pair of homers in a three-inning start and the Yankees’ quiet bats offered no help as they fell to the Blue Jays, 3-1, in the opening series’ rubber match at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees mustered only five hits against T.J. Zeuch and a parade of Blue Jays relievers, going 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position. The final 11 Yankees batters were retired in order as they dropped the series against a Blue Jays team that is expected to make noise this season in the AL East.

“Things did not work out the way I wanted them [to],” German said through an interpreter. “A long baseball season, you’re going to have some bad outings, you’re going to have really good ones and you’re going to have ones like today where they’re not as polished. You can’t let that rattle you. You want to maintain your focus and maintain your course.”

It had been 564 days since German last took the mound in a major league game, serving an 81-game suspension in between for violating MLB’s domestic violence policy after an incident involving his girlfriend. Upon his return to the Yankees this spring, he faced some criticism from at least two of his teammates and had to address the team to offer an apology before doing the same publicly.

Before he was suspended late in the 2019 season, German was 18-4 with a 4.03 ERA. This spring, he came back to beat out Deivi Garcia for a spot in the rotation after giving up just two runs in 13 innings of Grapefruit League play.

But Sunday was a different story. He needed 68 pitches to get through three innings — including 34 in the three-run second inning that he almost didn’t make it out of — before Michael King relieved him with six shutout innings.

After German worked around a double for a 12-pitch first inning, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. led off the second by tagging a fastball for an opposite-field home run to put the Blue Jays up 1-0. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. then singled before German left a changeup over the heart of the plate to Randal Grichuk, who crushed it to left field for a two-run homer and the 3-0 lead.

“I didn’t feel like he was as sharp with some of his secondary pitches,” manager Aaron Boone said. “The home run to Vladdy’s gonna happen, then he hangs a breaking ball to Gurriel to get it going and then Grichuk hits a hanging changeup after putting together a pretty good at-bat. So just made a couple mistakes, they made him pay.”

German attributed the lack of command to being too fast to the plate in his delivery, but said it’s a minor adjustment he can make before his next start.

“It was very exciting to be back on a major league mound and compete,” said German, who received applause from the crowd during pregame introductions. “I wanted to stay calm and take it all in. Definitely had some issues in the game today, but overall exciting.”

German got little support from his offense. The Yankees’ only run came in the fifth inning, thanks to Clint Frazier’s legs. He led off the inning with a bloop to shallow right field, hustling out of the box to turn it into a double. Frazier then tagged up and got to third on Gio Urshela’s fly out before scoring on Brett Gardner’s groundout to make it 3-1.

The Yankees had other chances to put together rallies, but failed to do so, stranding a runner in every inning from the second to the sixth.

“It’s gonna click,” Frazier said. “No need to hit the panic button yet.”