White Sox: Should Roberto Perez have moved out of the way in ninth?

Wednesday night will be remembered as one of the great games of the 2021 Chicago White Sox season. It is a good team that has playoff aspirations but there will always be individual moments that stick out. Carlos Rodon throwing the 20th no-hitter in team history is an amazing achievement. He has been through it all to get to this point and it was a really cool moment. He deserves all of the credit you can possibly give to a guy for having such an awesome achievement.

There was, however, one issue in this Wednesday night Chicago White Sox no-hitter.

In the ninth inning, Cleveland Indians catcher Roberto Perez stood in the box with one out. At that point, Rodon was staring at the 26th batter of 27 in a perfect game. At that point, he went 25 up and 25 down. He reached an 0-2 count before a slider slightly got away from him and clipped Perez on the top of the toe. Perez didn’t even slightly make an attempt to get out of the way and canceled the perfect game.

It was still a no-hitter but it was a wild move to do that on the part of Perez. You would think that a catcher would have the etiquette to move out of the way when it is a no-hitter. It is one thing when you break it up via a hit, error, or even a pitch that you attempt to get out of the way on. Instead, Perez had too much of an ego to move.

Luckily, Rodon went back and got the next two guys out and completed the game with no hits against. It was a great moment for this team but we will always remember Perez for what he did. It doesn’t make it any better after the hitter before slid into first to try and break the no-no. These are all unwritten rules and don’t have to be followed but that doesn’t mean that we can’t be mad about it.

It was a tough way to end the perfect game but the night was still extra special. The hope is that the 6-6 White Sox are now able to go on a run filled with confidence. This team is good and Carlos Rodon is a big part of it. He deserves to be in this rotation and we are happy to have him. Hopefully, he is able to keep up the good work.