ANAHEIM – This 6-0 White Sox victory at Angel Stadium Monday night was brought to you by the South Side baseball firm of Murakami, Martin and Miguel.\n\nAnd that trio had plenty of support, as the White Sox knocked out 16 hits in improving to 17-18 overall and 3-1 on this second of three West Coast trips before the end of May.
“If you see that the whole lineup now, it’s so deep,” said third baseman
Mired in a 4-for-32 slump coming into his fourth inning at-bat against the Angels on Monday night, Murakami blasted a 429-foot home run off José Soriano, according to Statcast. It landed in the greenery beyond the shrubbery in straightaway center, and the drive had an exit velocity of 109 mph, although it sounded off the bat even greater.\n\nThat prodigious clout wasn’t Murakami’s lone highlight with the bat, as he finished a triple short of hitting for the cycle. Yes, that result means Murakami picked up his first Major League double in the sixth inning, following 14 career homers and 14 singles. He also has 28 RBIs and 28 walks.\n\n“It was going to come sooner or later,” said Murakami of the double through interpreter Kenzo Yagi. “So I’m really happy about the result.”\n\n“Oh, yeah. I saw it on the scoreboard as the first one,” said Vargas with a laugh. “If you got that many homers, I guess you don’t have any doubles.”
Monday’s long ball left Murakami third in Major League Baseball history with his 14 home runs in 35 career games. He trails Rhys Hoskins at 18 (2017) and Aristides Aquino at 15 (2018-19). Murakami also tied Darrin Jackson, the longtime, popular radio analyst, for home runs on the White Sox career list. Murakami and the Yankees' Aaron Judge share the present MLB lead in homers.\n\nSoriano entered his last two starts against the White Sox with an astonishing one earned run allowed all season over 37 2/3 innings. Over these two straight defeats, the White Sox have scored eight against him on 14 hits.\n\n“Playing as a team, that’s what we do,” Vargas said. “We are fighting against him, all the nine hitters. We got really good swings out there and trying to battle every single pitch. We got really good results. We got this type of quality at-bats, we are going to have good results.”\n\n“Obviously he’s a very good pitcher, but as we faced him last time we were really able to select the pitches, see the variety of pitches that we had in the past,” Murakami said. “We’re very happy that we got the results like today and got off to a good start.”\n\nTrouble began for Soriano in the opening frame, walking Sam Antonacci and Murakami. Singles from Chase Meidroth and Andrew Benintendi, who had four hits, scored both runners with two outs.