The Chicago White Sox were not supposed to still be playing in October, and they definitely were not supposed to have the best hitter on the field. Munetaka Murakami settled the second part Saturday afternoon at Progressive Field, driving a two-run homer 440 feet in the fourth inning of a 3-0 win over the Cleveland Guardians in Game 1 of the American League Division Series.
The pitch was a first-pitch sinker from Cleveland rookie left-hander Parker Messick, inside and slightly elevated. Murakami hit it 112.2 mph off the bat with a 31-degree launch angle, the hardest-contact ball of the 2026 postseason. Miguel Vargas had singled to open the inning. That swing was the entire margin Chicago needed.
The Joke That Cracked Up His Interpreter
Asked afterward what he felt in the moment, Murakami skipped the standard answer. “I can’t really explain it in words right now, but it was something a little bit dirty,” he said through his interpreter, who audibly chuckled before passing the line along to reporters.
That is Murakami this October in one exchange. He turned up to interviews after the Wild Card sweep in Houston announcing “I’m drunk!” and pointing at his interpreter to insist, “He’s my classmate, but he’s drunk!” He is the most quotable man on a team nobody picked to be here, and he keeps backing it up by hitting the ball harder than anyone else in the playoffs.
Chicago’s Bullpen Game Worked Again
The pitching plan was the one that beat Houston. Five White Sox pitchers combined on a three-hitter with 12 strikeouts, with Grant Taylor working the final four innings on two hits for the save and Anthony Kay recording four outs ahead of him. Bryan Hudson got the win. Cleveland loaded the bases with two outs in both the third and the fourth and came away with nothing.
Messick was not the reason the Guardians lost, going 4 1/3 innings and allowing two runs on four hits with six strikeouts and two walks. Colson Montgomery pushed it to 3-0 in the seventh with an RBI double that scored Kyle Teel.
Taylor, now the most important arm in this bullpen, explained how he reads manager Will Venable’s silence. “I know that when I come in the dugout and Will doesn’t tell me that I’m done immediately, that there’s a possibility,” he said.
A Rookie Season That Makes More Sense In October
Murakami hit .207 this year. He also hit 35 home runs with 77 RBIs and an .825 OPS in 127 games, walked 92 times and made the All-Star team as a replacement. The two-year, $34 million deal Chicago handed him last December drew shrugs at the time. It looks like the best value contract in the American League now.
He homered in each of his first three career games in March, the first White Sox player ever to do that, and led the majors with 13 home runs on May 1 before a right hamstring strain cost him four to six weeks. He was quiet against Houston in the Wild Card round. Then he did this.
Murakami is the fourth White Sox rookie to homer in a postseason game, after Gavin Sheets in 2021, Luis Robert Jr. in 2020 and Tadahito Iguchi in 2005. Venable’s read on the moment was simple. “That’s what playoff baseball is about. Your big dogs going out there and making big plays,” he said.
Chicago went 84-78 and arrived as the No. 6 seed one year after losing 102 games. They already own the franchise’s first playoff series win since the 2005 World Series team. Game 2 is Monday at 5 p.m. ET in Cleveland, and the Guardians have to solve a problem they could not solve once.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.