This much-anticipated series between the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers originally was hyped as a showdown between Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese superstar, and Sox slugger Munteka Murakami, before the budding Japanese star injured his hamstring last month.
As it turned out, it was Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto who stole the show, losing a bid for a perfect game on a Mookie Betts error with two outs in the eighth, then losing his no-hitter on Tristan Peters’ solo home run to open the ninth.
Yamamoto wound up allowing one hit over 8 1/3 innings with seven strikeouts and no walks in the Dodgers’ 7-1 win and left to a standing ovation from the sellout crowd of 37,832 at Rate Field.
“One of the best outings we’ve seen by an opponent this year,” Sox manager Will Venable said.
Well, that was an understatement, to say the least. No one was more dominating against the Sox, and perhaps only Milwaukee Brewers righty Jacob Misiorowski’s 15-strikeout, one-hit shutout Friday was a more brilliant performance.
“He’s Yamamoto,” Sox third baseman Miguel Vargas said matter-of-factly. “He’s effective most of the time.”
Yamamoto retired the first 23 hitters he faced before Betts muffed a routine grounder to short by Chase Meidroth with two outs in the eighth. Yamamoto recovered by getting Jacob Gonzalez on a grounder to second to take the no-hitter into the ninth.
In his last start on June 6 against the Los Angeles Angeles, Yamamoto, last year’s World Series MVP, retired the final 22 hitters he faced in a 9-2 win, leaving him with an 0.99 ERA in four starts entering the day.
Staked to a 3-0 first-inning lead on Ohtani’s leadoff home run off Sean Burke and a two-run shot by Max Muncy, Yamamoto cruised, retiring the first 15 batters he faced with relative ease. The only close call was a foul ball down the left-field line by Meidroth with two outs in the fifth before Meidroth promptly struck out.
Then came an oddity in a perfect game — a delay requested by the pitcher.
Yamamoto, 27, asked for some mound grooming to start the sixth after a small hole in front of the rubber was deemed too deep for him to start his motion.
Would a slight delay throw him off track?
Not close. After the Sox grounds crew filled the hole where he set his plant foot, Yamamoto continued his dominance by striking out Gonzalez and retiring Peters on a sharp grounder to first. Alex Call’s nice running catch of Edgar Quero’s foul down the left-field line ended the inning and raised the stakes.
With one out in the seventh, a successful ABS challenge by Miguel Vargas erased a strikeout and gave the Sox a second chance.
Would that be the one to end it? Would this be the first perfect game to be affected by the robot ump?
Close, but no cigar. Vargas lined out sharply to left, and Andrew Benintendi fouled out to make it 21 in a row.
The drama increased in the eighth, and every pitch became a story of its own.
Colson Montgomery lined out hard to Freddie Freeman to start the inning, and Braden Montgomery grounded to short. Four outs to go, and Yamamoto was looking strong.
But Betts committed the error that ended the perfect game and elicited both cheers and groans from the crowd, which included thousands of Dodgers fans as well as Ohtani fans who came out to see the superstar — who missed Friday’s series opener because of a left knee issue — even if they rooted for the Sox.
Many at that point were hoping for a perfect game, apparently including Sox fans who determined a win was out of reach with the Dodgers leading 7-0 in the eighth.
“I hope not,” Venable said. “We’re trying to win a baseball game, and obviously a perfect game and a no-hitter is special, but we came out here to win a ballgame. I think our fans came out here to see us win a ballgame, so in that sense, I wouldn’t think so.”
Sorry, Will.
History is history. There’s another game tomorrow.
When Dodgers manager Dave Roberts sent Yamamoto out for the ninth, almost everyone in the crowd cheered. But Peters ended the no-hit bid, homering on a fastball inside the right-field foul pole. Peters crouched down and used a little body language to try to coax the ball fair. Whether it worked or not, it was fair.
“Obviously we don’t want to get no hit, and I think we put good at-bats together, too, throughout the game,” Peters said afterward, wearing his “Jesus Won” T-shirt. “Some hard lineouts.”
Did he know it was fair when he hit it?
“Off the bat I knew it had distance,” he said, “but I knew it was right down the line and I was praying it would stay fair.”
Yamamoto was removed one out later to a standing ovation, and after another delay to fix the mound, reliever Alex Vesia finished it off to even the series and end the Sox’s eight-game home winning streak.
“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 told Dodgers reporters through an interpreter. “I didn’t complete the ninth inning, the no-hitter. But how I was pitching, I was pretty satisfied.”
Burke and reliever Joe Rock combined for 10 walks in a rocky afternoon for Sox pitching, though Yamamoto’s brilliance overshadowed their outings.
Still, as the season goes on and the narratives change about the White Sox, the more things will change on the South Side. When you’re indisputably in a race for a postseason spot, when you’ve energized a fan base that was on autopilot for three straight 100-plus-loss seasons and when you’ve overtaken the Cubs in sports-talk radio chit-chat, there’s no going back.
October is no longer a pipe dream for the Sox, so plan the rest of your summer accordingly.
This weekend’s series against the Dodgers — like next week’s series in New York against the Yankees — may not be must-win.
But they certainly are must-watch, and Sunday’s rubber game will be on The U for those looking for a free taste.
