With two outs in the eighth and Yoshinobu Yamamoto sitting on 23 straight batters retired, the afternoon at Rate Field carried the quiet hum of something special. The White Sox had no hits, no walks, and no real answers for the right-hander’s command. Then Chase Meidroth tapped a grounder toward shortstop. Mookie Betts, the six-time Gold Glover filling in up the middle, couldn’t quite close his glove on it. The ball skipped away, the first White Sox baserunner reached, and a perfect game bid that had the city buzzing was gone in one awkward hop.
Betts didn’t hide from it afterward. He stood at his locker and gave the kind of answer that leaves little room for debate.
“Just a routine ground ball that I missed, I’m not making any excuses,” Betts said. “Obviously, with the situation going on, it was great, but I think us winning is the most important thing, that’s all we care about.”
He kept going, making clear he understood exactly what was on the line and still refused to let the moment become an excuse.
“Very aware, I mean, knew everything going on, didn’t have any extra pressure, like I said, I’m not making any excuses. I should have made the play,” Betts continued. “I mean, I did everything I was supposed to do, just didn’t catch the ball,” Betts said.
Betts has made that play a thousand times. On this one, the hop beat him.
Yamamoto never let the mistake snowball. He got the next out to close the eighth, then came back out for the ninth still protecting a no-hitter. Tristan Peters ended that bid with a solo shot to lead off the frame, the only hit Yamamoto would allow. The final line read 8⅓ innings, one hit, seven strikeouts, and 109 pitches in a 7-1 Dodgers win. It wasn’t the historic night everyone in the building thought they were watching, but it was still the kind of start that reminds you why the front office brought him here in the first place.
Betts, for all the frustration of the moment, still sounded like a teammate who had just watched something special.
“He was in the zone, he kept it out of the middle, kept him off balance. That’s just Yoshi being Yoshi,” Betts said. “glad he’s on our team.”
The Dodgers got the result they needed to even the series. Yamamoto showed the stuff and the poise that have defined his first years in Los Angeles.