Murakami homers twice as White Sox stay laser-focused on AL Central race

CHICAGO – Pardon the pun, but the White Sox showed no playoff celebration hangover during their 6-1 victory over the Rockies before 35,778 at an electric Rate Field Friday.

They thoroughly enjoyed their party in Kansas City Thursday afternoon but went right back to work in front of the 10th sellout of the season in cruising past the National League’s worst team. Special kudos to Munetaka Murakami, who went viral during his postgame interview with CHSN’s Brooke Fletcher via his “I am Japanese” declarative Thursday and then hit two mammoth home runs off Tomoyuki Sugano.

Murakami had knocked out two home runs against Sugano in Japan, where they also were World Baseball Classic teammates.

“Sugano has been in the Majors for quite a while,” said Murakami through interpreter Kenzo Yago. “Yes, we had our matchups in the past, but with different approaches, and I was able to pull through today."

“Ever since he came up [in Japan], he was expected to be a great player,” said Sugano through interpreter Yuko Sakurai. “Facing him, I felt the same way. He has brought championships to his former team, so I thought he was going to be a great player.”

Murakami pulled one out to right in the first and then went to left-center in the seventh. The slugging All-Star has changed his lower body strengthening over the course of two weeks, with adjustments coming based on his body condition and how he’s going.

“I usually try to think about what I can do better and adjust accordingly and try to change up if necessary,” Murakami said. “Today I was getting very comfortable in the box and had a very good approach. I'm trying to improve during the season. It doesn't really matter even if you clinch or not. Just try to be better."

“That’s so special,” said White Sox starter Sean Burke of his teammate. “He’s such a tough AB when he’s rolling like he is. You see two balls, both launched, one pull side and one oppo. Just the power he has, it’s such a dangerous bat.”

Qualifying for the playoffs did not change the White Sox day-to-day singular focus of helping get them to 83 wins this season after losing 100-plus in each of the last three seasons. So instead of setting up their pitching for a potential American League Wild Card Series starting Tuesday, Burke was on the mound for the opener against the 103-loss Rockies.

If things go as well with Davis Martin on Saturday as they did Friday, then the White Sox might not have to worry about the Wild Card. The White Sox remain one game behind the Guardians (84-76), who scored five in the ninth to beat the Royals, 12-9, although the White Sox have the season-series tiebreaker at 7-6.

Burke capped off a breakout, standout season by allowing one run over 5 1/3 innings, striking out seven and walking one. He finished the ‘26 campaign with a 3.34 ERA, to go with a career-high 185 strikeouts over 172 1/3 innings.

“I’m proud of the season I had,” Burke said. “Coming into this season, just reflecting over it with this past year, over the offseason, just so much opportunity to get better. Even still, it’s a solid year, but I think there’s still so much left on the table I can get better and improve from.

“None of that stuff matters until the end of the season. I’ll take some time once the job is finished to go back and reflect over that. We have baseball to play. It’s all about the next games coming up.”

Those next two games are against the Rockies, with big crowds expected for both. The crowds will be even more intense if the White Sox are able to host a playoff game for the first time since 2021, when they lost the Division Series in four games to the Astros.

Friday’s performance proved a couple of things to be true. This White Sox squad continues to fight, certainly not settling after good fortune found them. And they can enjoy champagne, beer, off-key singing and viral moments from Murakami and come back strong in less than 24 hours.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who went to college on this team,” a smiling Burke said. “We know how to turn it up at night and then turn it back the next day.”

“As you guys know, it's not my quote,” Murakami said of his post-clinch moment. “In the clubhouse and the team, we used to say that a lot. It's not my quote, but definitely the environment, atmosphere there made me say it. I would like to create my own quote that goes viral, maybe."