Before Saturday’s game against the Cubs, White Sox manager Will Venable didn’t seem too worried about Munetaka Murakami.
Venable knew what he was talking about.
Murakami hit two of the Sox’ five home runs in their 8-3 win over the Cubs. Not only did Murakami break a six-game dry spell, he had the first multi-homer game of his MLB career and helped the Sox climb back above .500 at 23-22.
“I told you guys he’s just fine,” Venable said. “Obviously, he sets a real high expectation, continues to have good at-bats, make good swing decisions and gets really good swings off and when he does, they usually go over the fence.”
Along with Murakami, the Sox got home runs from Miguel Vargas, Colson Montgomery and Andrew Benintendi. Murakami, Vargas and Montgomery have become one of baseball’s best power trios, and they showed why Saturday.
“They are really good teammates and the centerpiece of the team, as well as everybody,” Murakami said via a translator. “I’m really happy we are on the same squad. We want to keep continuing a day like this.”
Vargas echoed that.
"We prepared for this type of moment and I think we're doing a really good job,” Vargas said. “I feel it's not just us three. I think it's the whole team we're doing a really good job in every at-bat, and I think they put us in a really good spot to drive in runs and score."
For Murakami, hitting home runs against the rival Cubs in front of a sellout crowd of 38,795 is one of his biggest Sox moments. And two months into his MLB career, the ups and downs are already part of the Murakami experience.
From April 5-12, Murakami went homerless. He struck out 10 times in that perio
