Murakami's big blast opens door for Chicago doing little things to win

CHICAGO -- White Sox fans showed raucous support for Munetaka Murakami as soon as the first baseman’s name was announced as part of their starting lineup for a 5-4 victory over the Nationals on Friday at Rate Field.

Murakami honored that support with his 11th home run, a solo drive off Miles Mikolas tying the game in the fourth inning. That 415-foot blast, according to Statcast, tied him with Yordan Alvarez for the Major League lead. It also earned the left-handed slugger from Japan another massive ovation from the 17,588 energetic fans in attendance.

“I just wanted to live up to the expectations and try to give something back to the fans. I am really happy I was able to do that,” said Murakami through interpreter Kenzo Yagi. “The fans were giving a lot of cheers and a lot of support from the crowd. I was very happy I was able to get one off.”

A Murakami homer and the White Sox winning a game has become a pattern the South Siders certainly are truly enjoying. Friday’s victory ended a six-game home losing streak for the White Sox, who improved to 11-15 overall with their fifth win in seven games.

While his streak of five straight games with a homer ended Thursday in Arizona, Murakami still has gone deep in six of his last seven. There was a little postgame levity when Murakami was asked if he ever had a stretch like this one during his eight seasons in Japan.

“In Japan, I hit five homers in a row,” Murakami said. “Five at-bats in a row.”

Yes, we have a winner there. But this victory was not all about Murakami. Little things, or winning things, as manager Will Venable described them, made the difference.

Washington held a 3-2 lead in the seventh when Riley Cornejo entered for his Major League debut. Cornejo proceeded to walk Sam Antonacci and Luisangel Acuña, and then threw away Tristan Peters’ perfectly placed bunt, bringing home the tying run and setting up Andrew Benintendi for the go-ahead sacrifice fly.

Brady House’s solo homer off Jordan Leasure tied the game in the eighth, but with Cornejo still on the mound, the White Sox moved back out in front on an Antonacci sacrifice fly. That connection followed a Miguel Vargas infield hit, Colson Mongtomery’s walk and Edgar Quero’s sacrifice bunt.

As hitting coach Derek Shomon told MLB.com in Arizona, this team’s offense is multi-faceted when operating at its highest level.

“It's a blend of pretty much every type of player you can think of in an offense,” Antonacci said. “You have the power, you have guys who can hit home runs, it feels like whenever they want.

“You have guys who can get on base, have guys who can bunt you over to move them on and then good pitching behind it as well. It makes us a hard team to beat."

Seranthony Domínguez picked up his sixth save, striking out James Wood to strand a runner on third. Wood entered the night tied with Murakami at 10 homers.

By night’s end, Murakami was tied for fourth with Carlos Quentin (2009) and Frank Thomas (1994, 1996) for the most homers in April in franchise history at eight. Paul Konerko leads that group with 11 in 2010, followed by Jim Thome (2006) and Jose Abreu (2010) at 10.

“It’s impressive. That one especially,” Venable said. “We saw some balls hit that didn’t travel out that we thought were hit pretty well. Here he comes and kind of flips one out. It’s impressive the type of power he has.”

Impressive would be a good word to describe the White Sox play over the last week, since departing with a 6-13 record for one of their three West Coast road trips prior to May 24. Power is an important part of any winning team -- it’s almost impossible to win without it at this point.

This team also has shown the ability to win in a number of different ways as was reinforced against the Nationals. General manager Chris Getz and his staff felt it in Spring Training, but it took a few weeks to get things going in full force.

“More than anything, we go into a game each night with a chance to win,” said Getz during his pregame media session. “I think that signals that the White Sox are a better team, an improved team.

“Just focus on the game in front of you. Regardless of who is on the mound for us or the other team, we have a chance to win each and every night.”