Bats bring big moments, but tough opening series a learning experience for Sox

MILWAUKEE – White Sox closer Seranthony Domínguez flung his arms in the air a few feet from the American Family Field mound, representing frustration bordering on complete angst and disappointment.

Christian Yelich stopped for a moment to admire his 421-foot, pinch-hit three-run home run off a center-cut splitter, turning a one-time five-run deficit into a 9-7 victory for the Brewers.

And in that one eighth-inning moment, a rough White Sox weekend to open their 2026 season filled with promise turned into a three-game sweep.

"I've been there a lot of times. I just got to attack the strike zone, make quality pitches. I was doing really good pitches before that and just made that mistake to one of the best hitters,” Domínguez said. “It was a really bad moment for our team, for me. I was so close to getting out of that inning and just made a big mistake right down the middle."

“It's tough, but we'll dust ourselves off and be ready to go tomorrow,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “So yeah, it's a tough series. Some good stuff today. Obviously, we weren't able to finish it off, but we'll move on and be ready for tomorrow.”

There were some good White Sox moments not to be overlooked in the pain of Sunday’s setback, following up two rough losses to start the season. Let’s start with Munetaka Murakami, who has been better than advertised since coming to Chicago from Japan via a two-year, $34 million deal.

The White Sox first baseman homered in all three games, even getting a little apparent help from the opposition on Sunday. Murakami connected on a 3-2 pitch in the second inning from Brewers rookie starter Brandon Sproat, who had trouble locating the strike zone, and lofted a towering drive to right. The ball appeared to tick off Sal Frelick’s glove on a leaping attempt and cleared the fence.

Trevor Story homered in four consecutive regular season games to start his career in 2016. But Murakami and Cleveland’s Chase DeLauter are next on the list with three straight games with a long ball, tied with Kyle Lewis in 2019. Murakami and DeLauter’s streaks are both active.

While the instant success is gratifying for Murakami, he is a 26-year-old student of the game and tireless worker. So when asked about being surprised by this opening power punch, Murakami instead turned to three strikeouts in a 1-for-4 showing with two runs scored.

“From today’s game, I definitely had a lot of mistakes as well where I need to learn a lot from,” said Murakami through interpreter Kenzo Yagi. “Obviously the right-handed pitcher’s angle, the one I struck out on, the outside low ball. Like I said, there is a lot I still need to keep improving and growing.

“Being confident is there, but there are still a lot of learning curves to go. I’ll try to get better as much as possible on-going.”

Colson Montgomery drove out his first home run of the season and his second career grand slam on a first-pitch offering from Sproat in the first. He matched a career-high with five RBIs in the first two innings and saw a difference overall in his team from the first two games.

“These first three games, you are coming out here and you got the big crowds and things like that,” Montgomery said. “You are not really used to it, so you kind of get out of your game plan and you are doing a little too much.

“We are seeing the ball a lot better, having better quality at-bats. Kind of getting back into our game plan. I think it was the jitters and we were all really excited."

Milwaukee scored one in the sixth to cut the lead to four and then put up six in the eighth against Chris Murphy and Domínguez. It was just one bad game after Opening Day, then just two games and now just one series in a 162-game ledger.

This one series, against one of the slickest executing teams in the game, could turn into a valuable learning experience as the season progresses. Ride with the positives, and clean up the myriad areas needing improvement.

“Obviously it’s very disappointing and it’s really hard for the team itself to lose a game like that,” Murakami said. “But we have a lot to go in the future, so you just have to reset and go to Miami with the same mindset and play hard there.”

“It was a good, hard fought game today that didn't go our way,” Venable said. “This was one of the best teams in the league. There's good learning experiences, and we got to evaluate some individual things, get better at them and move forward.”