Murakami's MLB-high 12th HR fuels thrilling White Sox comeback

CHICAGO – Those White Sox fans who sat out a 3-hour rain delay Monday night at Rate Field for a 9:40 p.m. CT first pitch, those fans who watched the South Siders trail the Angels for much of the night, certainly got their money’s worth in the end.

Thanks to a seven-run seventh and a one-batter save from Bryan Hudson, the White Sox rallied for an 8-7 victory and moved within 3 games of Detroit atop the American League Central.

Sure, it’s April 27, or actually April 28 when the game officially ended. But there hasn’t been much of a need to look at the standings during any point in the past three seasons of Chicago’s rebuild.

Monday’s comeback started with Zach Neto’s error on Sam Antonacci’s slowly hit grounder, followed by Chase Meidroth’s bunt single to knock starter Jack Kochanowicz from the game. It was punctuated by Munetaka Murakami – who else – lofting a three-run home run off Drew Pomeranz to turn a 5-4 deficit into a 7-5 advantage.

That long ball marked Murakami’s Majors-high 12th overall and tied him with Will Smith (2019) for the fourth most in 29 career Major League games. Aristides Aquino at 14 (2018-19) and Rhys Hoskins at 13 (‘17) are the only ones ahead of him.

It’s little wonder the small number of fans still in place around 11:45 p.m. CT began chanting “MVP!” “MVP!” It’s a little early to be talking about the slugging first baseman from Japan as the top player in the American League.

Maybe “Rookie of the Year” would be the better call, although not quite as rhythmic.

“I wanted to hit it in front and get something out of it. That’s what I did,” said Murakami of his home run through interpreter Kenzo Yagi. “I didn’t think it was going in. But it somehow went in. So I’m happy.”

Entering the game 0-for-9 with five strikeouts, Murakami broke the mini-drought with a first-inning single. He was 4-for-30 against left-handed pitchers until he faced Pomeranz.

Murakami’s drive had a 48-degree launch angle and a 6.1-second hang time, according to Statcast. There have been only eight over-the-fence home runs since Statcast started recording data in 2015 with a higher launch angle. Murakami’s first 12 extra-base hits have been home runs, extending the longest such streak to start a player’s Major League career since at least 1900.

For the season, Murakami has 13 singles and 12 homers to make up his 25 hits.

“I remember watching him in the [World Baseball Classic], and this offseason, watching a lot of highlights of him,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said of Murakami. “And very successful, obviously in Japan, and it's translating here in the beginning parts of this year here. So it's a great swing with a lot of power.”

“He’s dangerous, good at-bats all day today,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “Obviously, he got that one out of here. It was a huge home run.”

Nick Sandlin was the first reliever to enter for the Angels, allowing Tristan Peters’ RBI single, hitting Edgar Quero with a pitch and yielding Andrew Benintendi’s two-run double before Murakami’s connection. Miguel Vargas followed with a long homer off Pomeranz to increase the advantage.

Osvaldo Bido earned the deserved win in relief, allowing Jorge Soler’s solo home run in three innings after Anthony Kay yielded four runs in four innings. Monday’s contest also marked Dog Day, but most of the dogs were gone by the time the White Sox offense started barking, and especially by the time Hudson retired Adam Frazier on a grounder to second baseman Meidroth to strand runners at second and third.

A long wait, but well worth it as the White Sox improved to 2-2 on this homestand.

“These two or three games [vs. the Nationals], we haven’t gotten a lot of runs,” Murakami said. “It was important to keep the lineup going, keep the bats going. We did that.”

“There was some concern about some stuff afterward possibly developing,” said Venable of knowing this game would be played despite the heavy storms arriving earlier. “But there was confidence that if nothing kind of came together behind that big cell that we’d be in good shape. We stuck around, obviously, and the guys stayed locked in and did a really good job of keeping the energy.”