All it took was a bobblehead to get Munetaka Murakami back on track.
Murakami snapped a couple of home run droughts with a two-run blast in the first inning en route to a two-homer, five-RBI day as the White Sox staved off a sweep of the Astros. Paired with a Cleveland loss earlier in the day, the White Sox also extended their AL Central lead to a season-high 2½ games.
"I think they did a better job with his than they did with mine," said Miguel Vargas of Murakami's bobblehead, before pivoting to the weightier topic of the division lead. "It means a lot for us. We know how important it is for us to win every single game, and we all know we have a tough week coming up against really good teams and we want to be able to be on the top, doing the best performance we can do."
The White Sox hadn't homered in their last five games, and Murakami hadn't left the yard since May 27, but he brought both streaks to a halt immediately, following up a Sam Antonacci leadoff walk with an opposite-field shot off Ronel Blanco that gave the White Sox a 2-1 lead. By the time the smoke cleared, the White Sox hit five of them, including back-to-back homers by Junior Pérez and Murakami that kicked the game out of eight-run range, a total which the Astros had proven themselves capable of scoring in a single inning earlier in the series.
"It was disappointing two games, so I was really happy I was able to contribute," Murakami said via interpreter. "It’s not like I’ve been having bad approaches. I wasn’t hitting home runs, but the approach itself was good. It was all about being patient at the box and the results came."
In the middle of it all, Vargas delivered the game's most important blow. The White Sox and Astros were tied at 3 heading into the bottom of the sixth, as Houston responded to Murakami's three RBIs with three solo shots off Erick Fedde, including two by Jeremy Peña. White Sox pitchers had just dodged a third sixth-inning disaster in as many days when Sean Newcomb loaded the bases over the course of the first four hitters he faced, but got Zach Dezenzo to fly out to strand all three.
Antonacci kicked off the bottom of the inning with a double, then moved to third on Murakami's groundout to the right side. Vargas followed by fouling back a high fastball, then watching one up and away for ball one. That's when Blanco tried one high heater too many, because even though it was above the zone, Vargas got his barrel to it and sent a no-doubter over the White Sox bullpen for a 5-3 lead.
Will Venable then called on Grant Taylor for a potential multi-inning appearance, but after striking out two hitters around a walk to Yordan Alvarez in a scoreless seventh, the White Sox offense allowed him to save some bullets.
Chase Meidroth opened the seventh with a solo shot off old friend Enyel De Los Santos that barely cleared the glove of Dezenzo in left, but counted just the same. Luisangel Acuña followed with a single, and although he was promptly picked off, Drew Romo replaced him with a single of his own.
Bryan King came in to relieve De Los Santos, but his left-handedness didn't win out. Randal Grichuk pinch-hit for Antonacci and hit a bouncer off King's glove for an infield single. and after a wild pitch allowed both runners to advance and bring the infield in, Murakami smashed a grounder right of second base and into center field for a two-run single and an 8-3 lead.
Vargas struck out, but Braden Montgomery took a fastball off the elbow to keep the inning alive, and Andrew Benintendi came up with a lefty-lefty hit by flipping a soft liner off the end of the bat to the vacated shortstop position for an RBI single and a six-run margin.
Miguel Ullola replaced King for the eighth, but the hits kept coming. Pérez seared a hanging slider on a line out to left for a two-run shot, and Murakami pulled an up-and-in fastball over the right field wall to cap off a crowd-of-32,581-pleasing day.
"We’ve seen it in phases here as he’s gotten closer," Venable said of Murakami. "We saw him the last couple days hit the ball in the air deeper in the park and then today, getting into a good spot. It’s been coming here, and obviously did a nice job today putting some balls over the fence."
Newcomb got the win, even though he was the least effective of the five relievers used. That's the opposite of damning with faint praise, however, because those five relievers combined for 4⅔ scoreless innings, starting with three outs from Jordan Hicks in relief of Fedde against the top of the Houston lineup in the fifth, and capped off with a scoreless eighth from Chris Murphy, and a scoreless ninth from Seranthony Domínguez.
"Bullpen's been great, they've been great all year," Fedde said. "They've been unsung heroes. I feel like they're not talked about as much, but they've really been so good, so many guys in this pen. Right now the pen feels really deep. You've got guys coming in, in the fifth to the ninth, there's a lot of confidence in those guys coming in."
As for Fedde, he once again provided a bulk boy's worth of innings without the benefit of an opener, lasting 4⅓ innings. It could have been better, because he gave up three runs and only generated two swinging strikes on 68 pitches. It also could've been worse, because all of those homers were solo shots, and a couple more home run bids died on the warning track, including one in the glove of a leaping Braden Montgomery to deny LaMonte Wade Jr. in the fourth inning for his first home run robbery. It's not the most sustainable act going, but he's there to help the White Sox cross days off the calendar, and those days have had a "W" on them the last five times out.
Bullet points:
*Murakami finished the day 3-for-5 with six RBIs, cashing in the multiple opportunities created by...
*... the spot ahead of him. Antonacci reached base all three times at the top of the order, and his replacements were perfect, too. He, Grichuk and Pérez combined to go 4-for-4 with a homer, double, walk, two RBIs and four runs scored.
*Tristan Peters was the only White Sox who failed to reach base, going 0-for-4.
*Vargas' homer overwrote some bad luck earlier in the game, as his ripped line drive found the glove of a lunging Isaac Paredes at third, who tagged the bag with his glove before Antonacci could retreat for a 5-unassisted double play that took a crooked number off the board in the third.
*A nine-run victory helped everybody forget about the White Sox losing both their challenges over the first two batters, as Antonacci unsuccessfully disputed the first pitch of the game, and Murakami guessed wrong on a 1-1 slider on the outside corner.
*Murakami's parents both threw out ceremonial first pitches, with their son and interpreter Kenzo Yagi splitting up the duties.
"The last time my parents came, I was injured," Murakami said via interpreter. "Just being out on the field today and getting the results in front of them is really special."
Despite the obvious boost to the results that Murakami's parents being present gave, the Sox first baseman said they have to get home to their dogs back in Japan.
