The White Sox’ season has featured its share of memorable moments. There was Edgar Quero’s walk-off home run to beat the Cubs, and Braden Montgomery marking his major-league debut with a game-winning homer against the Braves.
On Saturday, the Sox were almost on the wrong end of history.
Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto retired the first 23 batters and appeared to be heading into the ninth inning with a perfect game. But shortstop Mookie Betts mishandled a grounder by Chase Meidroth, giving the Sox their first baserunner with two outs in the eighth. Tristan Peters then broke up the no-hitter and shutout with a homer to lead off the ninth.
Peters’ homer did little to give the Sox a chance to rally, and they wound up losing 7-1 as their eight-game home winning streak ended.
An eight-time All-Star and the 2018 American League MVP with the Red Sox, Betts said he was aware of the perfect game and didn’t blame a tricky hop for the error.
‘‘Just a routine ground ball I missed,’’ Betts said. ‘‘Not making any excuses.’’
The Sox weren’t making excuses about how they came so close to being on the wrong end of a perfect game for the first time since Oct. 2, 1908, when Cleveland’s Addie Joss beat them 1-0. They were even closer to being no-hit for the first time since the Twins’ Francisco Liriano did it to them on May 3, 2011.
Yamamoto, the 2025 World Series MVP, was dominant. He struck out seven and gave the Sox very little to turn on. And when the Sox did make good contact, it was right at a Dodgers fielder.
‘‘One of the best outings we’ve seen from an opponent this year,’’ manager Will Venable said. ‘‘The stuff was outstanding. Lived on the edges. We didn’t have a ton to hit. Hit a couple of balls hard, but he was in control the whole day.’’
For much of the game, it looked as though Yamamoto might become the first Japanese pitcher to throw a perfect game. Doing that Saturday against the Sox would have been another example of the oddities of baseball.
On Friday, the Sox pounded the back-to-back World Series champions 8-2. Not even 24 hours later, the sellout crowd of 37,832 at Rate Field was buzzing with the possibility the Sox wouldn’t get a baserunner or a hit.
‘‘It just shows the ups and downs of baseball that a team can go through and an offense can go through,’’ Peters said. ‘‘I wouldn’t even say we had a bad offensive day, either. I think we put together some good at-bats, and we hit the ball hard. That’s just baseball.’’
Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani, back in the lineup after missing the game Friday with inflammation in his left knee, led off the game by hitting Sox starter Sean Burke’s second pitch well out to right field. Max Muncy added two more homers.
But it was Yamamoto who looked poised to do something special before his hopes ended on Peters’ homer.
‘‘In the dugout, it kind of feels like we won that game after that,’’ Sox third baseman Miguel Vargas said. ‘‘We really needed it. We were ready for that hit, and we are happy for TP to do that.’’
The Sox are probably glad they won’t have to see Yamamoto again. Vargas, who played with Yamamoto on the Dodgers in 2024 before being dealt to the Sox, had a simple explanation for why he was so good.
‘‘He’s Yamamoto,’’ Vargas said. ‘‘I guess he’s that effective most of the time. We put a lot of good swings out there today, and we [stayed together] as a group. It was his day. and good for him.’’