CHICAGO – The race is on for the White Sox.
Of course, there’s the journey to the top of the American League Central, where the South Siders currently comfortably reside with 20 games remaining after tonight. But the other race of note 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 Munetaka Murakami made it a trio with a towering long ball to left off Taj Bradley in the first inning Saturday night at Rate Field. Murakami had 74 homerless plate appearances since his last long ball on Aug. 18 at Wrigley Field, which also was a towering blast to left.
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 homer 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.