Munetaka Murakami hit two home runs Saturday night, his first two-homer game for the White Sox, and Chicago beat the Cubs 8-3 in front of a sellout crowd of 38,795. The White Sox hit five home runs in all and climbed back above.500 at 23-22.
Murakami’s pair of shots gave him the first multi-homer game of his MLB career and helped him beat Jameson Taillon twice. Miguel Vargas, Colson Montgomery and Andrew Benintendi also went deep as the Sox turned Sox vs Cubs into a power display that was enough to settle the game early.
The outburst came after a rough stretch that briefly raised questions about Murakami’s timing at the plate. He went homerless from April 5-12, struck out 10 times and hit.043 during that span, then followed it by homering in five straight games. He entered Saturday with 15 home runs, one behind Aaron Judge for the American League lead, along with 35 walks and 64 strikeouts.
Davis Martin helped make the offensive surge stand up by working six innings and allowing one run. Afterward, White Sox manager Will Venable made clear he never lost faith in Murakami, saying, “I told you guys he’s just fine,” before adding that the slugger keeps setting a high standard with his at-bats, swing decisions and contact quality. “Obviously, he sets a real high expectation, continues to have good at-bats, make good swing decisions and gets really good swings off and when he does, they usually go over the fence,” Venable said.
Murakami said through a translator that he is glad to be in the middle of a lineup that is producing from multiple spots. “They are really good teammates and the centerpiece of the team, as well as everybody,” he said. “I’m really happy we are on the same squad. We want to keep continuing a day like this.” Vargas echoed that view, saying the group expected this kind of night and believes the entire lineup is helping create it. “We prepared for this type of moment and I think we’re doing a really good job,” Vargas said. “I feel it’s not just us three. I think it’s the whole team we’re doing a really good job in every at-bat, and I think they put us in a really good spot to drive in runs and score.”
The numbers suggest the White Sox are no longer depending on one bat to carry them. Murakami, Vargas and Montgomery have become one of baseball’s best power trios, and Saturday’s win was the clearest example yet of how damaging that combination can be when all three are locked in. Martin put it bluntly afterward: “He’s a superstar. There’s no other way to [put] it,” he said of Murakami. “You play against guys like [Mike] Trout, you play against guys like Judge and Yordan Alvarez and he’s doing the same things that they are. It’s an incredible thing to watch.”
