White Sox, Schultz win a laffer over Padres, 8-2

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Our second must-watch player continues to place himself in rare air in MLB history. Per Sarah Langs, Murakami now ranks third all-time in home runs through 32 career games. Something tells me he is going to be No. 1 on the list by the time we get to Game 50 or so.

And finally, must-watch ABs come from Colson Montgomery as well. And Colson extended the White Sox rout with a first-pitch screamer out to right-center with two outs in the fifth:

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That homer should have been a two-run shot, as right before Colson’s clout Miguel Vargas connected on a superb hustle double, turning a standard single to center into a two-bagger with an aggressive, hard cut at the first base bag. Vargas beat the throw but was ruled out on the field; the appeal at second was denied, backed by a claim that Vargas drifted off of the bag during his slide.

He did not:

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Schultz ended up going a scoreless six innings and holding 88.9% of the Padres lineup hitless (Fernando Tatís Jr. was the only one to touch him, with a single in the third and triple in the sixth). The southpaw did not walk a single batter after the first inning, and struck out two.

Kudos to the offense as a whole tonight, for being smart enough to sense that Márquez was on the ropes struggling to get his knuckle-curve over the plate and working at-bats deep. Eight batters had worked counts at least five pitches deep through the first 3 1/3 innings of the game.

Three singles in the eighth rounded the White Sox run total up to eight.

The Padres did finally rally off of the eminently-hittable Osvaldo Bido in the eighth, stringing a walk and three singles together to puncture the scoreboard with two runs.