Murakami's power impresses A's as HRs in 3 straight games lead to series win

WEST SACRAMENTO -- White Sox designated hitter Munetaka Murakami has done it again.

The 26-year-old Japanese slugger homered for the third consecutive game on Sunday, matching the impressive achievement he enjoyed when making his MLB debut this season, while leading the White Sox to a 7-4 win in the rubber game against the A’s at Sutter Health Park.

“I’m in very [good] preparation all game, so having the results come out is a really exciting part for me,” Murakami said through an interpreter. “I just love having the points come from all the lineup. Everybody contributing to the team is wonderful. I hope we can keep contributing and keep continuing to [have] success.”

If the South Siders keep playing like they did against the A’s, that success is likely to continue.

In the series opener on Friday, Murakami crushed a Statcast-projected 431-foot grand slam. On Saturday, he clubbed a 415-foot home run.

Murakami’s home run on Sunday wasn’t as far, but was equally impressive, traveling a Statcast-projected 425 feet with an exit velocity of 114.1 mph.

Murakami’s eight home runs in his first 22 games are the most by any Japanese-born player. Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani had five in his first 22 games.

“He’s off to a great start,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “We made some mistakes to him and we paid for them. He’s got tremendous power. There’s no question about that. There’s some swing-and-miss in there that we have to find and attack, but he had a good series against us.”

Derek Hill, Miguel Vargas and Colson Montgomery also went deep to help the White Sox to their first series win since sweeping the American League champion Blue Jays from April 3-5. Vargas had two hits and reached base four times.

“The last five, six games, these guys have been the best version of themselves,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “There’s still situations out there where it’s nice to push a couple more [runs across].”

Noah Schultz (Chicago’s No. 2 prospect and MLB Pipeline’s No. 44 overall) allowed one run on one hit and one walk in five innings to go with six strikeouts to earn his first Major League victory. The 22-year-old lefty had pitched around traffic in three of the five innings he worked during his second start in the big leagues.

“The first couple of innings, I was wasting some pitches and then I had some conversations,” Schultz said. “It was a good feeling, one of many. It was a great team win, a great series win.”

After the A’s scored three runs off Grant Taylor in the seventh, Jordan Leasure retired one batter before Bryan Hudson pitched a scoreless eighth. Seranthony Domínguez worked around a one-out walk and a hit-by-pitch in the ninth to earn his fourth save.

As good as Chicago’s pitching was in this series, the offense was better.

The White Sox swatted eight home runs in the three games after hitting 16 in their first 19 games. They came out ready on Sunday as three of Chicago’s first four hitters reached safely in the first inning against A’s starter Jeffrey Springs, before Chase Meidroth scored on Edgar Quero’s sacrifice fly.

The White Sox increased their lead to 2-0 in the second following Hill’s first home run since Aug. 4, 2025.

Vargas came out first-pitch swinging later in the inning and hit his third home run of the season, a two-run drive that made it 4-0.

All of Chicago’s runs came against Springs, who had allowed only four runs over his first 24 2/3 innings this season.