Yoshinobu Yamamoto flirted with perfection in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 7-1 win over the Chicago White Sox on Saturday, but ultimately fell short of making MLB history in part because of a Mookie Betts error.
With two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, Betts booted a ground ball at shortstop that allowed Chase Meidroth to reach for the White Sox’s first baserunner of the game.
“Just a routine ground ball that I missed. Not making any excuses,” Betts said on SportsNet LA after the game.
Betts, who had Yamamoto’s potential perfect game in the back of his mind, denied feeling any added pressure to make the play.
“Very aware,” Betts began. “I 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.”
Meidroth’s ground ball appeared to take somewhat of a high hop before reaching Betts’ glove, but the eight-time All-Star believes it is a play he should have made.
“I think that’s for someone else to decide,” Betts answered when asked if the ball took a higher hop than expected. “But I should have caught the ball.”
Yamamoto worked around the error to take a no-hitter into the ninth inning. Upon returning to the dugout, he was captured by SportsNet LA cameras trying to uplift Betts after the unfortunate error.
The right-hander would lose his no-hitter when Tristan Peters led off the bottom of the ninth with a home run. Yamamoto retired the next batter to finish his night with only the one run allowed in 8.1 innings.
Dalton Rushing defends Mookie Betts
While Betts feels he should have fielded the ground ball cleanly, Dalton Rushing believes it was a difficult play for any shortstop to make.
“It took a tough hop, even from my view, my perspective,” Rushing said. “That’s a tough ball to make a play on. At the end of the day, it didn’t lose him a no-hitter, so we weren’t beating him up about it.
“Obviously, Mookie being the competitor, the athlete that he is, he was pretty hard on himself about it, but that’s what we want. We don’t want guys to just say whatever and play like that and kind of give in, and act like it wasn’t their number or anything like that.
“But no, he holds himself accountable as much as anyone, and that’s what we want to see out of guys, and he turned it around pretty quickly.”
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