Murakami mashes moonshot grand slam en route to Sox 9-2 victory over the A’s

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With back-to-back singles from Murakami and Miguel Vargas to begin the third inning, the third “M” for “Montgomery” brought home Mune for his second RBI of the game, and Vargas took to some aggressive baserunning to go first to third on Colson’s single. He would have been out too, if the ball hadn’t hit him and trickled away. Edgar Quero would later bring home Miguel with an RBI ground out for a 3-0 Sox lead.

While the offense broke out early, Davis Martin was dealing alongside it. Through three innings, Martin used just 20 pitches for the first nine outs in nine-up, nine-down fashion. As per his early trends of the season, he was mixing up his pitches: slider (six), sinker (five), changeup (four), 4-seamer (three), curveball (one) and cutter (one).

It would take until the fourth inning for the A’s to score, as they caught a break of their own. With one out, Luisangel Acuña lost what appeared to be a routine fly ball to the twilight sky, allowing Shea Langeliers a double. Kurtz would then step up to the plate and work a 12-pitch at-bat to rip a ball past Meidroth, who brought out the Superman dive once more but unsuccessful this go-around.

Luckily, it’s all about short-term memory in baseball. In the top of the fifth, with Meidroth on first with two outs, Acuña doubled to right-center to pick up a run for a net zero impact and a 4-1 Sox lead. At 103 pitches, Aaron Civale did not make it through the fifth inning, as predicted and hoped for in the game thread.

First out of the pen, Elvis Alvarado replaced Civale, and Benintendi immediately capitalized with a second-pitch RBI double, extending the Sox lead even further, 5-1.

Looking to put this game out of reach in the seventh and Alvarado still on the bump, Murakami stepped up to the plate with the sacks packed and two out. He worked the count full, and BOOM! He launched a 98.2 mph fastball 431 feet to straightaway center field with a 114.1 mph exit velocity for his first career MLB grand slam, and team-leading sixth home run. The ball cleared the tall batter’s eye in center field, eliciting more than a few gasps. That’ll do!

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That was the Sox’s third grand slam on the year, and they lead MLB in that department.

Other than the one run allowed in the fourth, Davis kept dealing and was purely dominant tonight! In back-to-back starts, Martin has gone seven innings and has now notched three straight quality starts. Martin ended his night in the same way it began, mixing and matching all six of his pitches to ultimately keep the A’s off-balanced and guessing. Here’s how his economical 89 pitches this evening broke down: 4-seamer (22), sinker (20), slider (16), cutter (12), changeup (11) and curveball (eight). He struck out four, walked two and only allowed three hits. Skill > luck.

Doug Nikhazy, fresh from Charlotte, replaced Davis in the eighth. The southpaw allowed leadoff man Max Muncy to walk and eventually score on Andy Ibáñez’s RBI ground out to make the score just a smidge closer, 9-2. However, that would be it for the A’s and their quiet offense this evening, as Nikhazy remained in the game for the ninth and wrapped it up. Not too shabby to record the last six outs in your third career MLB game

The Good Guys improve to 7-13, and it’ll be a quick turnaround into a day game tomorrow afternoon! Erick Fedde (0-3, 3.38 ERA) and Luis Severino (0-2, 5.59 ERA) will clash on the mound as the Sox look to take the series at 3:10 p.m. CT on CHSN.

Before we all head off to sleep, one more thing:

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IYKYK!