The Mets are on the board. Now, it’s the Phillies’ turn. The club will look to end an eight-game slide in Chicago this afternoon.
1. Murakami’s home run streak
First baseman Munetaka Murakami took Ryan Thompson deep in the seventh inning of Wednesday’s contest. He’s now homered in five consecutive games, which puts him in impressive historical company (h/t Scott Merkin of MLB.com). Murakami’s homer streak ties him with Shohei Ohtani for the longest by a Japanese-born player. The five-game run matches the White Sox franchise record, set by several players. It also ties the MLB rookie record, which has been done 13 times. Colson Montgomery has also homered in four straight games, which is a record for a pair of teammates. The slugging infielders will look to keep it going against Michael Soroka on Thursday.
2. Ritchie getting the call
The Braves are promoting top prospect JR Ritchie for his MLB debut against the Nationals today. The right-hander was off to an excellent start in Triple-A, posting a 0.99 ERA across five appearances. Ritchie is taking the spot of fellow intriguing rookie Didier Fuentes, who allowed four earned runs over three innings on Wednesday, but did rack up seven strikeouts. Ritchie and Fuentes are likely to be up and down with the big-league club frequently as the organization tries to buy time for its injured starters to return.
3. Soriano’s historic start
Right-hander Jose Soriano navigated around seven hits to deliver five scoreless innings against the Blue Jays on Wednesday. The outing trimmed his ERA to 0.28. It’s the lowest mark through six starts since earned runs became an official stat in 1913, per MLB. Soriano has allowed one earned run all season, and it came in one of his most dominant outings. Drake Baldwin tagged him for a solo home run in the first inning of an April 6 start, but Soriano settled in for eight strong frames to beat Chris Sale and the Braves. He’s ripped off 24 2/3 scoreless innings since the Baldwin blast. Soriano is lined up to face the White Sox in his next start.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Red Sox didn’t sign Murakami because they don’t need homeruns, right?
They have that casas guy, don’t worry.
There is much rejoicing in New York! The Mets finally won a ballgame last night, though they might lose Francisco Lindor to the DL with a barking calf muscle.
I’m glad Murakami is doing so well. It’ll be interesting to see how the league adjusts to him, and what adjustments he makes in response.
White Sox were the right franchise for him to sign with, as no one thought he would be this successful this early. Good for him.
Wow… in six starts Soriano’s WAR is already greater than his WAR last year.
The Pirates let this guy go. Can you imagine Skenes and him at the top of your rotation this year.
If Murakami keeps raking, do the White Sox move him at the deadline? If so, who goes after him?
As others said, I think it would be bad business if they trade him already and not really endear them to the Japanese market as he’s just getting comfortable in the states.
Unless traded to the Blue Jays, he would still be in the states. You put the team first before a player. No Japanese player was pro White Sox and still will not be pro White Sox no matter. You can’t lose a market that has no interest in you whatsoever.
At a certain point, you need good players to have a good team. Super long rebuilds are stupid and just drive away fans.
Rumor is Jerry is getting nervous about having to pay this guy – so he is looking to trade him for 3 Little League players.
I don’t think they move him. If a franchise needs a good story, it’s them and they can at least compete for the division next year if they have a smart offseason.
Right. Tigers without Skubal and the division is really up for grabs.
like i said before
all the teams and all the scouts and all the “experts” are slapping themselves for dismissing Murakami. guy’s a HR beast. just like he was in japan.
on pace for 67 hr. 142 walks. OPS over 1.000. definitely looking better than okamoto who got twice the deal.
murakami’s going to rly cash in when his 2 yrs are done
It’s April
From ESPN: Murakami is the 13th MLB rookie since at least 1900 to go deep in five straight. Murakami’s 10 homers, eight coming on the road, are second in the big leagues behind Houston’s Yordan Alvarez, who has 11. They also are the most in MLB history by a Japanese-born player in his first 24 career games.
but yea keep using the excuse “its only 3 games… its only a week… its only april….”
he “only” got 2 years 35 mil and he’s hit more HRs a month into the season than aaron judge and twice as many as ohtani
Both the Phillies and Pirates have to be wondering why they didn’t sign this guy.
With hindsight, sure. But nearly all projections would show the Pirates at least being more disappointed missing out on Okamoto and, given his slow start, I am glad we didn’t go harder after him.
I’m not sure where we would play Murakami if he was on our team. We already have 6 1B and I don’t trust Murakami’s glove at 3B.
But seeing how they’re hitting now, sure, I wish we had ponied up for Murakami and ignored Okamoto.
What a fantastic start to his season!!
Soriano
Not only has Mune gone 5 straight along with Colson going 4, but Miguel Vargas has went deep in the last 3
White Sox could be good in a couple of years.
20 years of that promise. It amazes me how the Brewers, Astros, Braves and Dodgers develop prospect after prospect while the White Sox just have to hope a few prospects hit so that they can trade them for more pieces to screw up. Trying to have faith in our GM Chris Getz. Look at our last 50 years of 1st rounders if you like good jokes. Cant wait for Reinsdorf to be gone from the Bulls and Sox
The Astros can develop sleeper prospects but touted ones pretty much have no hope.
The White Sox have an entirely new front office and will soon have a new owner with a boat load of cash (his and his family) to spend on players and a new stadium. Have faith!
I also don’t have a problem with the draft selections of Chris Getz since taking over the front office reigns from Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn in the fall of 2023. He’s overseen two drafts and his top picks were LHP Hagen Smith and SS Billy Carlson. The White Sox will have the #1 overall selection in July and it is expected to be generational SS Roch Cholowski.
Under his leadership as former farm director, assistant GM and now Senior VP/GM, Getz has also done a better job of developing talent than the prior regime did before his arrival from the Royals organization. Getz has also managed to make some impacting trades as top boss including the Garrett Crochet deal that brought C Kyle Teel, 2B Chase Meidroth, OF Braden Montgomery and RP Wikelman González into the organization.
Those days of being “mired in mediocrity” or worse will soon be a thing of the past. 🙂
Yah Appel and Whitley were unfortunate
I also didn’t/don’t hate the Kopech/Fedde for Vargas and a couple lotto tickets trade. The youngsters are high OBP. Like I said Im trying to allow Getz to see his vision through
Getz has also refrained from prioritizing 1B at the top of his Amateur Drafts. Instead he signed Munetaka Murakami, a proven power bat from Japan who everyone else seemed to avoid.
A three outcome player like Murakami is just fine in the middle of a lineup that also features a couple of traditional grunts and a slew of other young players who possess solid OBP and SLG tools.
Don’t forget Aiken. And not just that. Since 2015, we haven’t had a successful first or second rounder (excluding 2023 and onward).
Soon as in 2029 at the earliest?
2027
2029-2034. The soonest is 2029.
From MLB dot com on June 5, 2025
“This agreement provides that, from 2029–2033, Reinsdorf will have the option to sell the controlling interest to Ishbia. After the 2034 season, Ishbia will have the option to acquire the controlling interest.”
and further
“There is no assurance that any such future transaction will occur, and in no event will such a transaction take place before 2029.
Until such time, the Reinsdorf family will continue to own the controlling interest in the White Sox. Reinsdorf, 89, has been chairman of the White Sox since purchasing the franchise in 1981, and remains the sole day-to-day decisionmaker for the club.”
Oh I was talking about White Sox contention.
Apparently it’s April.
Munetaka>Masanori 👴
Soriano is insane. Someone needs to stop him. Go Southside!
Probably one of the best parts about this White Sox rebuild is watching Murukami mash bombs. I’m glad Getz pounced on the chance to get him.
White Sox outsmarted everyone else on Murakami. You always give credit when credit is due, unless you are a complete tool.
Very True, but if they truly believed in were smarter then the rest, they wojld have a bunch of team options ( even at big money like Robert) backed onto that deal.
They didn’t have much faith.
Let me rephrase that for you. You have got to be a bit of a tool to believe that 109 PA equals what kind of production you will get from a player long term. Especially a player striking out 33% of the time.
I’ve only seen Murakami the last two nights vs the Dbacks, so small sample size caveats apply, but in addition to his plate discipline and power, Murakami has played a very, very solid 1B.
Thats a huge plus considering hes been a 3b mostly in Japan so some were saying he may not know how to play 1b
“It’s not that hard, tell him Wash…”
“It’s incredibly hard!”
Iconic line
youtube.com/watch?v=gzDYgRc6eic
… and Murakami made another great defensive play in game three.
Homerun homerun homerun…. no big deal, win the game! Why was Antonnaci sitting to start the game while Hill Murray and Periers were in the lineup. Its like we wnted to lose that one.
“…but did rack up seven strikeouts” It is funny how lost people have become regarding the actual goal of baseball (to score more runs than the other team…and win). It’s like fantasy baseball is the only thing that matters. Statistics! That is what is important!
Tell you what, each of my team’s outs can be strikeouts if you give up multiple runs in only a few innings. Deal. You can have your strikeouts, my team can have the runs…and likely the win.
Yeah, but the guys with the high strikeouts are usually going to allow fewer runs. You’re looking at just one game. His 7 Ks are a good indicator of future success.
.210 BA and 200 SO. Seems to me that the White Sox have a propensity for signing guys like that. If he hits 50 HR they may only finish in 4th place instead of 5th.
BA how quaint. Now do RBIs!
.256/.404/.622/1.026
or
.333/.385/.667/1.052
Which would you want as your DH?
Soriano’s got a 1835 era+ 😆
Holy cow how.