Player of the gameYoshinobu YamamotoLAD8.1ip 1h 1er 7k
A booted grounder ended his run at perfection in the eighth inning, and a long ball in the ninth was the only hit on his final line. Yoshinobu Yamamoto was nearly perfect and nearly unhittable, but he ultimately fell short of both feats. Yamamoto was four outs away from a perfect game when a Mookie Betts fielding error allowed the first White Sox baserunner to reach. He was three outs away from a no-hitter when he surrendered a home run to Tristan Peters to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning. It was still pure domination: Yamamoto struck out seven and allowed just two baserunners across 8 1/3 innings in Saturday's 7-1 win at Rate Field. But he came away feeling a little unfulfilled. “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.” Yamamoto came close to making some additional history in his dominant start on the South Side. His gem came after a start against the Angels where he set down his final 22 batters in order. He extended the streak to 45 consecutive batters retired, tying Mark Buehrle (2009) for the second-longest in MLB history behind Yusmeiro Petit's 46 (2014), according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The perfect-game bid came to an end with two outs in the eighth inning, when Yamamoto got Chase Meidroth to ground a ball to the left side of the infield. Betts booted the ball at shortstop, and although second baseman Santiago Espinal found himself in position to attempt a second-chance 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 broke up the no-hit bid with his ninth-inning long ball, Yamamoto got one final batter: No. 9 hitter Edgar Quero, who flied out to center fielder Andy Pages. That ended Yamamoto's gem after a season-high 109 pitches.
