Mookie Betts owns up to error that ended Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s perfect-game bid

CHICAGO –– After committing an eighth-inning error on Saturday that ended Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s bid for a perfect game, Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts stood before his locker and kept repeating the same message.

“Just a routine ground ball that I missed,” he said. “Not making any excuses.”

There was little routine about the moment, of course, with Yamamoto having been four outs away from a perfect game –– and one out away from tying an MLB record of 46 batters retired in a row –– when White Sox infielder Chase Meidroth hit a bouncing ground ball that Betts went to field. 

Though it certainly wasn’t a difficult play, the chopper didn’t wind up being exactly routine, either, taking what appeared to be a slightly high bounce on its final hop before reaching Betts.

What happened next might’ve gone down in Hanley Ramirez-esque infamy, had Yamamoto not also lost his no-hit bid in the ninth inning on a solo home run from Tristan Peters.

As Betts bent down to field the grounder, he booted it in a stunning moment that saw the ball clank off the heel of his mitt.

“[I was] very aware of everything going on,” Betts said. “Didn’t have any extra pressure.” 

Instead, he explained, he simply didn’t execute.

“I’m not making any excuses,” he reiterated. “I should have made the play.”

In the moment, Betts seemed to be in disbelief at his mistake. He raised his hands as the ball ricocheted to second baseman Santiago Espinal, who couldn’t salvage the play with a bare-handed attempt. He then looked around stoically, with a blank expression almost as if to say: How did that happen?

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“Obviously, Mookie being the competitor, the athlete that he is, he was pretty hard on himself about it,” catcher Dalton Rushing said.

Yamamoto absolved Betts of any blame, noting through an interpreter that the ball took an “irregular bounce” and that the situation “was just what it is.”

Back in the dugout after the inning, Yamamoto was also among the several teammates who tried to pick up the frustrated Betts with a pat of encouragement as he walked past the bench.

After the game, Rushing cited Betts’ disappointment as a sign of how much the former MVP cares.

“That’s what we want,” Rushing said. “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. He holds himself accountable as much as anyone, and that’s what we want to see out of guys.”

When Betts was asked what was going through his mind after the error, he insisted “nothing” –– only adding that he “did everything I was supposed to do, just didn’t catch the ball.”

When asked specifically if the high hop was what caused the miscue, he again sidestepped any excuse-making.

“I think that’s for someone else to decide,” Betts said. “I should’ve caught the ball.”

Since moving to shortstop full-time last year, the former six-time Gold Glove right fielder has typically made such plays with ease. A season ago, he was a Gold Glove finalist after leading the majors in defensive runs saved at the position. This year, he had made just one error in 34 games before Saturday, ranking fifth in fielding percentage among shortstops with 100 innings played.

“That’s baseball. It happens,” pitching coach Mark Prior said. “It’s a team game. At the end of the day, you’re going to go out there and pick him up.”