Mookie Betts’ mistake ruins Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s perfect game

Every time Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto Go up the hill and there’s a good chance something special will happen. This Saturday in Chicago, The Dodger ace was very close to making history again by flirting with a perfect game.

Yamamoto, who came one out short of pitching a no-hitter in Baltimore last September, received a home run by Tristan Peters of the Chicago White Sox in the bottom of the ninth inning for the home team’s first hit.

Just minutes earlier, Yamamoto had lost the potential perfect game in the Dodgers’ 7-1 victory. No Dodgers pitcher has had a perfect game since 1965. (Sandy Koufax).

Mookie Betts misses with the glove

With two outs in the eighth inning, Yamamoto dominated Roam Meidroth into a slow grounder straight to shortstop, but Mookie Betts couldn’t field the ball. Although the second noxious Santiago Espinal, who was nearby, tried to catch the ball in the air with time to make the play, he could not keep it and thus the perfect game was broken.

Yamamoto, with the great attitude that characterizes him, did not lose concentration and dominated Jacob González in a grounder to the second noxious with his 103rd pitch to keep the game without a hit or run after 8 innings.

The first hit against Yamamoto was a home run

However, his pitch count was already high and the 27-year-old right-hander’s 105th pitch was hit by Peters into the stands near the right field post for the White Sox’s first hit – and first run.

On September 6, Yamamoto was one out away from a no-hitter against Baltimore before Jackson Holliday hit a dramatic home run.after which supervisor Dave Roberts removed his ace from the mound.

This Saturday, Yamamoto retired one more batter after the home run and then was relieved by Roberts after 8-1 extraordinary innings in which he struck out 7 enemies, without any balls. He threw 109 pitches (74 strikes) en route to improving his record to 7-4 on the season.

Television replays showed Yamamoto comforting a distraught Mookie Betts in the dugout of the Dodgers after the closing of the eighth inning.

Ohtani and Muncy took to the streets

Shohei Ohtani homered in the first inning, his 14th, and Max Muncy added two homers (16) of two runs each to support Yamamoto. Peters’ home run was his third of the year and one Yamamoto will likely never forget.

Signed by the Dodgers before the 2024 season, Yoshinobu Yamamoto cemented his place among the best pitchers in baseball by winning three games in the last World Series, including one in relief in the seventh and decisive game in Toronto when he came in relief after pitching the previous night.