CLEVELAND — The Yankees kept on offering free passes to the Guardians, and eventually it made for just enough kindling to burn them.

Domingo German was the main culprit, walking five batters in a rough three-inning start, but the bullpen added four more, one of which came around as the winning run in the Guardians’ 3-2 victory Monday night in the series opener at Progressive Field.

German walked the leadoff batter in three of the four innings he started and matched a career-high with five walks overall.

He did not record any strikeouts and threw 87 pitches (only 49 strikes) by the time he was mercifully removed with no outs and two men on in the fourth inning of a 2-2 game.

The Guardians later took the lead in the seventh inning off Yankees reliever Ian Hamilton, who walked the first two batters he faced.

One of them, Steven Kwan, came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Josh Naylor that ended up deciding the game on a night when the Yankees missed a chance to blow it open early.

“It’s amazing that’s a 3-2 game, really both sides, with us walking as many guys as we did and I felt like our guys having really good at-bats and hitting the ball on the nose against them throughout the night,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Just kind of a weird game, but frustrating nonetheless.”

The Yankees had a prime chance to tie it up in the eighth inning, when Gleyber Torres led off with a sinking line drive that got past center fielder Myles Straw for a triple.

But Guardians reliever James Karinchak stranded Torres at third by getting Aaron Judge to pop up on a check swing and then striking out Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton.

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“We gotta come through in the middle of the order, especially me,” Judge said. “In that situation, I gotta either miss it or just take a full swing and get the job done.”

Karinchak was emphatic upon carving up the heart of the Yankees order, pounding his chest as he jogged off the mound.

“[Karinchak] made some good pitches and sure got excited about it,” said Boone, who later insisted he had no issue with Karinchak’s celebration.

The Yankees appeared to have Shane Bieber on the ropes in the first inning, when they loaded the bases with no outs and then took a 2-0 lead on Giancarlo Stanton’s double. But Bieber escaped the jam without allowing another run, and after Stanton’s double, the Guardians ace went on to retire 19 of the next 23 batters through the seventh inning.

It was much more of a slog for German, who typically fills up the strike zone. The only time he did not walk the leadoff batter was the second inning, which started with him dropping Andres Gimenez’s pop-up bunt and then booting it for an error. Gimenez eventually came in to score on Will Brennan’s sacrifice fly that made it 2-1.

German began the fourth inning by issuing back-to-back walks before Mike Zunino hit one of his three doubles on the night down the third-base line to tie the game at two.

“I can’t give you a specific answer why [I struggled with command],” German said through an interpreter. “It’s terrible. Terrible outcome tonight.”

Relieving German, Colten Brewer came in and walked the first batter he faced on four pitches, but recovered by getting a pair of ground balls — the second going for a double play — to get out of the jam with the tie score intact.

Brewer went on to give the Yankees a big lift, recording nine quick outs on 28 pitches to bridge the gap to the seventh inning.

But Hamilton quickly joined the walk parade, with the Yankees’ nine free passes overall proving a few too many for them to overcome.

“We just didn’t do a good enough job overall of throwing strikes tonight,” Boone said.