CHICAGO — Yoshinobu Yamamoto carried a no-hitter into the ninth inning Saturday afternoon at Rate Field, and even though Tristan Peters ended the bid with a solo home run, nothing about that single swing changed what the right-hander put together. Yamamoto was sharp, poised, and in complete control for eight-plus innings. The Dodgers won 7-1, secured the series split, and left Chicago with a performance worth remembering long after the box score gets filed away.
Muncy Does the Heavy Lifting
Los Angeles wasted zero time. Shohei Ohtani led off the game with his 14th home run of the season, a solo shot to right field that set the tone before the White Sox had even settled in. It was vintage Ohtani: first pitch of the game, first at-bat, gone.
Two batters later, Max Muncy made it a party. He sent a two-run fly ball to right center to cap a three-run first inning and put the Dodgers firmly in the driver’s seat before Sean Burke had recorded a single out. Muncy was not done there. In the third, Kyle Tucker added an RBI single to push the lead to four, then immediately swiped second base for his sixth steal of the year. And in the eighth, Muncy came back around for the finishing touch, a two-run home run to center off reliever Brandon Eisert that put the game completely out of reach. Two home runs. Five RBI. Sixteen long balls on the season. This was unmistakably Muncy’s night at the plate.
The fifth run in the sixth inning did not require a single ball to leave the infield. Ohtani walked, Andy Pages walked, and with the bases loaded, Tucker drew a free pass that forced Ohtani home from third. It was the kind of disciplined, grinding sequence that makes this lineup so difficult to navigate. The White Sox did not give them anything clean, and the Dodgers made them pay anyway.
History Within Reach
Yamamoto came into Saturday having posted some of his best outings of the season over the last month, and this was the logical extension of that run. He retired the side in order four times, did not issue a walk, and never seemed rattled when the Dodgers left runners on base behind him in the middle innings. He was locked in from the jump and stayed there.
Through eight innings, he had not allowed a hit. He worked with the calm, methodical efficiency that defines his best starts, navigating hitters without theatrics, trusting his stuff, and letting the defense work behind him. The Dodgers were clean in the field, and Yamamoto gave them nothing to worry about.
Then came the ninth. Peters connected on a solo shot to right, ending both the no-hit bid and the shutout in one swing. Yamamoto was lifted, Alex Vesia came on to close it out, and the final read 7-1.
A no-hitter lost in the ninth? Technically. But that framing undersells what happened here. Yamamoto took a no-no into the final inning against a professional lineup and surrendered exactly one hit. His arsenal is elite. His composure is elite. And the no-hitter is coming. That much feels inevitable now. The way he is pitching, it is not a matter of if. It is a matter of when, and that when feels close.
Ohtani and Tucker Keep Applying Pressure
Beyond Muncy’s headline night, Ohtani and Tucker were forces throughout. Ohtani walked three times on top of his leadoff homer, consistently making the White Sox work for every out against him and putting runners on base without needing to barrel anything up. Tucker contributed across multiple categories: RBI single, stolen base, walks drawn, run scored. His presence in the three-hole continues to make the middle of this order genuinely difficult to plan around. When everyone is contributing in different ways on the same night, this is what it looks like.
Up Next
Los Angeles and Chicago wrap up their three-game set Sunday morning at Rate Field. Emmet Sheehan gets the ball for the Dodgers opposite White Sox right-hander Erick Fedde. First pitch is scheduled for 11:10 a.m. PT.
