ANAHEIM – This 6-0 White Sox victory at Angel Stadium Monday night was brought to you by the South Side baseball firm of Murakami, Martin and Miguel.
And that trio had plenty of support, as the White Sox knocked out 16 hits in improving to 17-18 overall and 3-1 on this second of three West Coast trips before the end of May.
“If you see that the whole lineup now, it’s so deep,” said third baseman Miguel Vargas, who knocked out his seventh home run among two hits. “Any guy can give you a really good at-bat, a single, an extra base hit, a stolen base. That’s our identity right now. The hustle on the bases too has been unbelievable.”
Munetaka Murakami adding Angel Stadium to his list of home run locales seemed only fitting, considering he has been at the center of this White Sox turnaround.
Mired in a 4-for-32 slump coming into his fourth inning at-bat against the Angels on Monday night, Murakami blasted a 429-foot home run off José Soriano, according to Statcast. It landed in the greenery beyond the shrubbery in straightaway center, and the drive had an exit velocity of 109 mph, although it sounded off the bat even greater.
That prodigious clout wasn’t Murakami’s lone highlight with the bat, as he finished a triple short of hitting for the cycle. Yes, that result means Murakami picked up his first Major League double in the sixth inning, following 14 career homers and 14 singles. He also has 28 RBIs and 28 walks.
“It was going to come sooner or later,” said Murakami of the double through interpreter Kenzo Yagi. “So I’m really happy about the result.”
“Oh, yeah. I saw it on the scoreboard as the first one,” said Vargas with a laugh. “If you got that many homers, I guess you don’t have any doubles.”
Monday’s long ball left Murakami third in Major League Baseball history with his 14 home runs in 35 career games. He trails Rhys Hoskins at 18 (2017) and Aristides Aquino at 15 (2018-19). Murakami also tied Darrin Jackson, the longtime, popular radio analyst, for home runs on the White Sox career list. Murakami and the Yankees' Aaron Judge share the present MLB lead in homers.
Soriano entered his last two starts against the White Sox with an astonishing one earned run allowed all season over 37 2/3 innings. Over these two straight defeats, the White Sox have scored eight against him on 14 hits.
“Playing as a team, that’s what we do,” Vargas said. “We are fighting against him, all the nine hitters. We got really good swings out there and trying to battle every single pitch. We got really good results. We got this type of quality at-bats, we are going to have good results.”
“Obviously he’s a very good pitcher, but as we faced him last time we were really able to select the pitches, see the variety of pitches that we had in the past,” Murakami said. “We’re very happy that we got the results like today and got off to a good start.”
Trouble began for Soriano in the opening frame, walking Sam Antonacci and Murakami. Singles from Chase Meidroth and Andrew Benintendi, who had four hits, scored both runners with two outs.
Davis Martin, the second part of this overwhelming threesome, didn’t need any more support than that initial stanza. He threw dominant, shutout baseball over seven innings, setting a career-high with 10 strikeouts and not issuing a walk. His ERA dipped to 1.64, with Statcast even showing a velocity increase on his four-seam fastball as he recorded 19 swings and misses overall.
In improving to 11-5 since their 6-13 start, the White Sox also pushed within a half game of the American League Central lead in a division with no team above .500. It’s an enjoyable time to be part of this crew, as viewed by anyone watching them in action.
“You can look at the dugout and figure that out,” said Martin, who improved to 5-1. “We’re not hiding that we’re having the best time. This is a group that in Spring Training we knew we could do something cool and feel like we were building toward something.
“Obviously we stumbled out of the gate, but I think we found our stride and found who we are as a team and the personality of our team. We just have a bunch of guys that want to play for each other, guys that are playing hard and wanting to win baseball games.”