CHICAGO – Munetaka Murakami had one major goal when coming from Japan to play Major League Baseball via a two-year, $34 million deal with the White Sox – stay healthy.
The first baseman missed on that target upon suffering a Grade 2 right hamstring strain on May 29 against the Tigers, keeping him out of action for 35 games. But he has hit on pretty much everything else during his rookie season in Chicago.
That list includes a 30th home run the left-handed slugger connected on during the first inning of a 6-4 loss to the Twins on Saturday night at Target Field. So now there’s a second race within the White Sox (74-68) over the final 20 games of this 2026 season.
Of course, there’s the journey to the top of the American League Central, where the South Siders currently hold a 2 1/2-game lead over the Guardians (72-71). They also held steady at their 1 1/2-game lead over the Astros (73-70) for the No. 2 seed in the AL, meaning a Wild Card Series bye, as all three teams lost Saturday. But the other bit of friendly competition is for the 2026 White Sox home run crown.
Miguel Vargas and Colson Montgomery reached 30 home runs on Friday in a 4-1 victory over the Twins, and Murakami made it a trio with a towering long ball to left off Taj Bradley. Murakami had 74 homerless plate appearances since his last connection on Aug. 18 at Wrigley Field, which also was a towering blast to left.
“Obviously I’m really happy about getting 30, but moreover we lost the game. So that’s very much disappointing. We hope we can win one tomorrow,” said Murakami through interpreter Kenzo Yagi. “If I can press down on the angle a little bit more, I think I can get better results. I hope we can continue that, and we can have better success tomorrow.”
Murakami’s homer made it the fourth season in which the White Sox have had at least three players with 30+ homers. The previous three were 2008 (Jermaine Dye, Carlos Quentin and Jim Thome), ‘06 (Joe Crede, Dye, Thome, Paul Konerko) and ‘04 (Konerko, Carlos Lee, José Valentín). Murakami joins Shohei Ohtani (six times), Seiya Suzuki and Hideki Matsui as the only Japanese-born players with a 30-homer season in MLB history.
Montgomery reclaimed the team lead two batters after Murakami, as he connected on No. 31. This is the 10th time Montgomery and Murakami have homered in the same game this year, tied for most in White Sox history by a duo, with:
2026: Murakami/Vargas
2023: Luis Robert Jr./Jake Burger
2006: Thome/Dye
2003: Frank Thomas/Lee
The MLB record is 16 by the 2002 Rangers with Rafael Palmeiro and Alex Rodriguez, per Elias Sports.
Montgomery also set a single-season franchise high for homers by a player who primarily plays shortstop.
“It's really cool, it's special. Obviously, all these guys have done a great job really throughout our lineup,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “To have three guys in the middle of your lineup that have 30 homers, it means a lot. Obviously, it speaks to what we do well. These guys hit the ball hard, hit the ball over the fence, and it's cool to have three guys with 30.”
“Having Colson and Vargas is a strong point for us,” Murakami said. “But not just them, the whole team contributing in all aspects. It’s making us stronger. Keep continuing as a team to get stronger and hope for the win.”
Anthony Kay (9-8) cruised through the first three scoreless innings Saturday, only to allow two in the fourth and three in the fifth on Ryan Jeffers’ three-run blast. Sunday night’s starter, in the season finale between these two teams, was originally supposed to be Sean Burke for the White Sox, but they moved him back after Monday’s off-day to start Tuesday against the Pirates, with Bryan Hudson opening Sunday.
Davis Martin gets the second game against Pittsburgh, which again builds in an extra rest during this pressure-packed finish. It could line up Burke and Martin to face the Guardians during a series in Cleveland from Sept. 14-16.
“There’s a bunch of different factors. You could look at a lot of different things,” said Venable of the rotation switch. “That’s way down the road. We’ve got a lot going on before that. It’s really what it means mostly up front here to rest some guys.”
There’s hope the White Sox power trio, not to mention quite a few others in the lineup, will continue their support on offense.