Yamamoto misses perfection and a no-hitter in Chicago

Yamamoto misses – Yoshinobu Yamamoto looked untouchable through 8 1/3 innings in the Dodgers’ 7-1 win at Rate Field, but a booted ground ball by Mookie Betts ended the perfect-game bid in the eighth and a Tristan Peters home run to lead off the ninth ended his no-hitter.

CHICAGO — For a while, it felt like Yoshinobu Yamamoto was going to erase baseball from the night. He got seven strikeouts. He gave up only two baserunners across 8 1/3 innings. The Dodgers won 7-1 at Rate Field. and the stands rose in a rare. shared appreciation—White Sox and Dodgers jerseys shoulder to shoulder for a pitcher who was that close to something historic.

Then the eighth inning arrived with two outs already on the board, and the margin for error suddenly vanished. Yamamoto was four outs away from a perfect game when a fielding error by Mookie Betts allowed the first White Sox baserunner to reach. Three outs after that, Yamamoto was still alive in another kind of history—the no-hitter—but it didn’t last.

In the bottom of the ninth, Tristan Peters took him deep with a home run to lead off the inning. Yamamoto got one final out afterward, as No. 9 hitter Edgar Quero flied out to center fielder Andy Pages. That ended his gem after a season-high 109 pitches.

Yamamoto walked off knowing what had been lost.

“I do feel a little bit regrettable, because I went into the ninth inning and I was not able to achieve a no-hitter,” Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda. “I didn’t complete the ninth inning, the no-hitter. But how I was pitching, I was pretty satisfied.”

The night still mattered in ways that couldn’t be measured by either streak or stat line. Yamamoto arrived already carrying momentum from elsewhere—after a start against the Angels where he set down his final 22 batters in order. That streak extended to 45 consecutive batters retired. tying Mark Buehrle (2009) for the second-longest mark in MLB history behind Yusmeiro Petit’s 46 (2014). according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

But the perfect-game bid wasn’t undone by a swing-and-miss or a mistake that had to be explained away. It was a routine moment that slipped past the field and changed everything. With Chase Meidroth at the plate and two outs in the eighth. Yamamoto got him to ground a ball to the left side of the infield. Betts booted it at shortstop. Although second baseman Santiago Espinal had a chance at a second play. Meidroth became the first White Sox hitter to reach base against Yamamoto.

“Just a routine ground ball that I missed,” Betts said. “Not making any excuses.”

After Peters ended the no-hitter. the conversation around Yamamoto shifted back to what he still did—dominance so clean it made the smallest failures sting. Saturday’s performance wasn’t the first time his pitching turned into something close to myth. Yamamoto has thrown two no-hitters in Nippon Professional Baseball, but he’s still searching for his first in the Majors.

He came close last September in Baltimore, when he lost a no-hit bid after 8 2/3 innings. Even with that history, this time the ending still landed hard. Pitching coach Mark Prior pointed to the same thing many in the organization noticed: the focus doesn’t leave him when the innings get late.

“Sometimes as soon as he gets through the first inning, we feel pretty good about it,” Prior said. “It was another special night for him.”

Dodgers players and staff have increasingly come to treat Yamamoto’s breakthrough no-hitter as something inevitable rather than a question of if. They cite the pitch mix, the command, and the way he can change the look without abandoning the plan.

“It’s not just the amount of pitches. It’s the ability to throw them in four different quadrants and have pretty good execution and efficiency with it. ” Prior said. “That’s what makes him special. It’s not that he’s trying things. He knows the right situations where he can get away with things if he does miss his spots. But he’s very calculated on when he does it.”.

Said Peters: “I’d have to say he’s probably [got] the best command of the zone that I’ve ever faced. His stuff is good, but just the way he commands the zone, his presence is really good.”

There was also frustration in the places where the Dodgers felt they could have done more—frustration that was more personal because it landed on teammates who were right there in the moments that mattered. Some in Los Angeles were pulled back to Baltimore by the similarity of how a no-hitter can slip after long stretches of control. and Saturday carried its own sting: Betts for not fielding the ball cleanly in the eighth. and catcher Dalton Rushing for not getting Yamamoto through the ninth.

Rushing, though, also offered the kind of perspective that helps a team move forward after a near-historic night. He described how Yamamoto thinks about his job and how quickly he tries to leave the disappointment behind.

“I think he understands that he went out there, he did his job and he gave us more than a chance to win this game today,” Rushing said. “And in his eyes, that’s all he has to do every single time. That’s why, obviously, he is who he is, and everyone respects a guy like that a lot.”

So Yamamoto left Chicago with a line that still belonged on the highlight reel—and with a feeling he wouldn’t be able to shake. He was close to perfection, close enough to make the ninth-inning pain feel almost unfair. But what remains on the record. and in the way people watched him walk the mound. is harder to dismiss: the performance was special. even when baseball found a way to say “not yet.”.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto White Sox Dodgers Rate Field perfect game no-hitter Mookie Betts Tristan Peters Edgar Quero Dalton Rushing Mark Prior Santiago Espinal Andy Pages