CHICAGO — Fans around Rate Field rose to their feet as Yoshinobu Yamamoto embraced his teammates before walking off the mound.
Of course, the Dodgers fans stood. But fans clad in White Sox jerseys joined them, waving White Sox hats in the air, acknowledging the brilliance they’d just witnessed.
In the Dodgers’ 7-1 win against the White Sox on Saturday, Yamamoto carried a perfect game bid into the eighth inning and a no-hit bid into the ninth.
Dating back to Yamamoto’s last start, against the Angels, he retired 45 straight batters, one shy of the major-league record set by Yusmeiro Petit in 2014.
In an eventful game, which included Shohei Ohtani returning to the lineup to homer in his first at-bat, a two-homer performance from Max Muncy, and a team-effort bounce-back after getting blown out the night before, Yamamoto’s performance on the mound stole the show.
Yamamoto, who exited with one out in the ninth inning and a pitch count of 109, was efficient even within each out. A 10-pitch strikeout in the third inning showed how Yamamoto wasn’t going to give in.
The Dodgers right-hander been one pitch away from striking out the White Sox’ Jacob Gonzalez for seven straight pitches already. But Gonzalez kept fouling off anything close to the strike zone.
For the 10th pitch of the at-bat, Yamamoto challenged Gonzalez with a cutter over the plate. And finally, Gonzalez swung through it.
The next inning, Yamamoto retired the side in just eight pitches.
The only thing that slowed his roll was the mound itself. Yamamoto asked for the grounds crew to fix it into the bottom of the sixth inning. And then he kept cruising.
He had help from a steady defense behind him for much of the game.
The sixth inning included two highlight-worthy plays. Tristan Peters hit a sharp ground ball up the first-base line, and first baseman Freddie Freeman made a sliding stop, tossing the ball to Yamamoto at first to complete the play. Then left-fielder Alex Call ran into the retaining wall in foul territory to catch Edgar Quero’s fly ball for the final out of the inning.
For the most part, Yamamoto made it look easy. The hardest contact against Yamamoto came the third time through the lineup. In the seventh inning, he pumped a heater to the top rail against Miguel Vargas, who stayed on top of the pitch to send a line drive to left field. Right to Call.
In the eighth, he fell behind Colson Montgomery 3-1. But he worked back to a full count. Montgomery then scorched a line drive up the first base line – into Freeman’s glove.
His perfect game bid ended two batters later, with two outs, on an error.
Yamamoto got Chase Meidroth to chase a slider, hitting a ground ball to shortstop Mookie Betts. But Betts mishandled the hop. The ball shot to his left, where second baseman Santiago Espinal tried to salvage the play but couldn’t pick up the ricochet cleanly.
The no-hit bid was next to fall. Yamamoto piped a fastball down the middle to Peters, who sent it over the right-field fence for the first hit and first run against Yamamoto.
He stayed in for one more batter, inducing Quero to fly out, before handing the ball over to manager Dave Roberts. Left-hander Alex Vesia took over for the last two outs of the game.
Ohtani returns
Before Yamamoto took the mound, Ohtani’s return was the big story of the day.
He stepped into the Rate Field batter’s box for the first time this series on Saturday, greeted by a smattering of boos from White Sox fans.
He took his first swing at the second pitch of the game. And he sent it into the right-field stands. A no-doubter, proclaiming that his availability was no longer in doubt.
Ohtani returned to the Dodgers lineup on Saturday, after exiting the Dodgers’ game Thursday against the Pirates and missing Friday against the White Sox for inflammation in his left knee.
“I think Shohei drove it,” manager Dave Roberts said of the decision to play Saturday. “Training staff drove it. We took him out of the game the other night just for precautionary reasons. Yesterday treated it up. Today he feels great. All the confidence that he can go out there and hit, feel good, not regress at all.”
The Dodgers will continue to monitor his knee as he prepares to take the mound Wednesday against the Rays at Dodger Stadium.
“I think we’re full go,” Roberts said before Ohtani threw on flat ground pregame Saturday. “But I do think once he’s out there playing catch and we see how his knee responds to the pressure, the torque will be some good information.”
Even before Ohtani’s knee swelled (it’s still unclear what caused the inflammation) the Dodgers planned to have him pitch the day before their Thursday off day.
They switched Ohtani and left-hander Justin Wrobleski in the rotation order, having Wrobleski pitch Tuesday on regular rest.
That remains the plan, even after Wrobleski was hit in the leg by a comebacker during his start Thursday. He left the game after that play in the fifth inning with a bruised right hamstring.
The Dodgers considered bringing in a spot starter, Roberts said, in order to keep the full rotation on extra rest.
“But considering how Wrobo’s start went short, feels good after it, we feel the four days’ rest will be fine for him,” Roberts said. “And then where Shohei is at, we feel good about just leaving it status quo.”
Ohtani returned Saturday without restrictions in his designated hitter role – except one request from his manager, after a couple days of parsing whether a steal attempt that was snuffed out by a foul ball had contributed to Ohtani’s injury.
Though they didn’t find a clear inciting incident, Roberts made it clear Saturday: “There will be no basestealing.”
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