PHOENIX – Munetaka Murakami tied the White Sox franchise record with a home run in his fifth straight game, crushing a first-pitch offering from Arizona’s Ryan Thompson with nobody out in the seventh inning to score Miguel Vargas at Chase Field on Wednesday night.
Vargas had walked before Murakami connected on the 451-foot blast, cutting the deficit to 10-7, marking the longest White Sox home run of the season, according to Stacast.
Murakami joins A.J. Pierzynski (2012), Paul Konerko (2011), Carlos Lee (2003), Frank Thomas (twice in 1994), Ron Kittle (1983) and Greg Luzinski (1983), who homered in five straight for the White Sox.
It was Murakami’s 10th home run of the season, giving him 10 home runs and 11 singles among his 21 hits. He also tied the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani for the longest consecutive-game home run streak for a Japanese-born player.
Murakami’s clout on Wednesday equaled the longest streak by an MLB rookie, now done 13 times, including by Kittle with the White Sox in 1983, per Elias Sports.
Murakami’s 10 home runs are the most of any Japanese-born player in his first 24 MLB games. He has four more than any other Japanese-born player in first 24 MLB games, ahead of Ohtani, who had six in his first 24 games as a hitter