Murakami's MLB-leading 13th HR propels Sox to 4th straight victory
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SAN DIEGO -- Munetaka Murakami started the month of May as he started his Major League career: hitting a home run.
Murakami connected on a 3-2, center-cut knuckle curve with two outs in the second inning Friday night at Petco Park, driving Germán Márquez’s offering a Statcast-projected 413 feet to right-center field with a 111.1 mph exit velocity.
Murakami’s 13th home run was a three-run blast, completing a six-run frame and breaking a tie with the Yankees’ Aaron Judge and the Astros’ Yordan Alavarez for the MLB lead. It helped the White Sox cruise to an 8-2 victory, marking their fourth straight win overall.
Murakami’s 13 homers are third-most for a player in his first 32 career games, behind only 2017 Rhys Hoskins (16) and 2018-19 Aristides Aquino (14).
Colson Montgomery also went deep, giving him nine for the season and 30 for his career.
Montgomery ranks second for the most homers in franchise history after 103 games, trailing Jose Abreu’s 31 in 2014. Eloy Jimenez (2019) is next at 24, followed by Zeke Bonura (1934) and Josh Fields (2006-07) at 23.
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That six-run inning featured just three hits, and was plenty of support for rookie Noah Schultz. Despite walking three and throwing 28 pitches in the first inning, Schultz hurled six scoreless innings with two strikeouts and two hits allowed.
The duo of Murakami and Montgomery homered in the same game for the seventh time. That’s the most by any teammate duo in their team’s first 35 games of a season in MLB history and it’s only Game 32, according to Elias Sports.