CHICAGO -- When does a Major League Baseball team finishing with one hit, in the context of a 7-1 loss, feel like a positive?
The White Sox provided an answer to that question Saturday. Their lone connection came via Tristan Peters’ home run leading off the ninth inning of Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s no-hit bid, giving a small sense of victory to the White Sox (37-32) against the Dodgers in front of their fifth sellout crowd of the season at Rate Field.
“In the dugout, it kind of feels like we won that game after that,” White Sox third baseman Miguel Vargas said. “We really needed it. We were ready for that hit.”
“Honestly the words aren't really said, it's just really known and you feel it a little bit,” said Peters, who launched his third career homer. “But the thing I love about us is we're not going to quit. That's not what we do. We're going to stay in the game until the last out in the ninth inning."
Yamamoto (7-4) was masterful, which should be of no surprise to anyone who watched him lead the Dodgers to their second straight World Series title in 2025. Actually, Yamamoto was nearly perfect.
The Dodgers’ right-hander took that perfect game to two outs into the eighth inning, extending his consecutive batters retired streak to 45. That number leaves him tied for second in baseball history in this category with Mark Buehrle for the 2009 White Sox, behind Yusmeiro Petit at 46 with the Giants in 2014.
That chance at history ended when Chase Meidroth’s seemingly routine grounder bounced away from shortstop Mookie Betts for just his second error of the season. The ball rolled to second baseman Santiago Espinal, but he had no play at first.
“Yeah, it’s tough,” Vargas said of Betts’ gut-wrenching error. “Everyone wants to make the play, especially when your guy is doing perfect on the mound. That’s how baseball works sometimes. He’s a great baseball player and a Hall of Famer. He’ll be fine.”
Shohei Ohtani’s leadoff homer and two homers from Max Muncy provided plenty of offense for the Dodgers (45-26), who scored three in the first off Sean Burke (3-4). Nothing really came close to breaking up Yamamoto’s pursuit of perfection for the White Sox, although Jacob Gonzalez went to a three-ball count in the sixth and Andrew Benintendi did the same to end the seventh.
Gonzalez had a 10-pitch at-bat against Yamamoto in the third, resulting in a strikeout. It was one of seven for Yamamoto.
“Obviously, [Yamamoto was] very good,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “One of the best outings we’ve seen from an opponent this year. The stuff was outstanding. Lived on the edges. We didn’t have a ton to hit. Hit a couple balls hard but he was in control the whole day.”
“We don't want to get no-hit. I think we put good at-bats together, too,” said Peters, who had a hard-hit grounder slickly fielded by first baseman Freddie Freeman turn into the second out of the sixth. “Throughout the game we had some hard lineouts. I saw him well today, I felt really good about it, so I was just trying to see it well that last at-bat and do damage."
Upon his ninth-inning connection, the only doubt for Peters was whether his 388-foot drive down the right-field line would stay fair. It was close, but there was no challenge from the Dodgers.
“Off the bat, I knew it had the distance,” Peters said. “But I knew it was right down the line and I was just praying it would stay fair. It just shows the ups and downs of baseball that a team can go through and an offense can go through. I wouldn't even say we had a bad offensive day either. That's just baseball."
Vargas had a hard lineout to left fielder Alex Call for the second out of the seventh, with an exit velocity of 103.2 mph, per Statcast. He’s familiar with Yamamoto from their time together with the Dodgers in ‘24, and it was Yamamoto who texted Vargas in January, asking him to look out for Munetaka Murakami when he arrived with the White Sox.
Both Vargas and Murakami are doing just fine for a White Sox team sitting a half-game out of first in the American League Central after their eight-game home winning streak came to an end. Yamamoto’s season is not going half-bad either, enhanced by Saturday’s dominance.
“He’s Yamamoto. I guess he’s that effective most of the time,” Vargas said. “I think we put a lot of good swings out there today and we stayed as a group together and it was his day. Good for him.”