White Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami putting on historic HR show

Yahoo Sports3h ago12 min readOriginal source →

TL;DR

Munetaka Murakami of the Chicago White Sox has made history by hitting nine home runs in his first 23 MLB games and homering in four consecutive games. His performance includes a 434-foot homer against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Key points

Munetaka Murakami hit nine homers in his first 23 MLB games.
He homered in four consecutive games for the Chicago White Sox.
Murakami's 434-foot homer came against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
He is the first Japanese-born player to achieve these records.
Only Shohei Ohtani and Seiya Suzuki have homered in four consecutive games.

Munetaka MurakamiChicago White SoxArizona DiamondbacksShohei Ohtani

PHOENIX — Well, maybe Munetaka Murakami won’t have a difficult time making that transition from Japan to Major League Baseball after all.

In the meantime, is he ever making a whole lot of teams looking foolish for ignoring him in free agency.

Murakami made more history Tuesday night by homering for the fourth consecutive game in the Chicago White Sox’s 11-5 rout over the Arizona Diamondbacks — a 434-foot shot —going where no Japanese player has ever gone before.

He is not only the first Japanese-born player to hit nine homers in his first 23 games, but also the first player since at least 1900 to produce nine homers and more than 20 walks in the first 23 games of a career.

The only Japanese players who have ever homered in four consecutive games at any juncture in their career are three-time MVP Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs All-Star outfielder Seiya Suzuki.

Murakami, 26, is looking just like the dude who was Nippon Professional Baseball’s premier slugger, breaking the legendary Sadaharu Oh’s single-season home run record with 56 homers as a 22-year-old, and winning two MVP awards.

Sure, the season is just three weeks old, but the strikeouts and swing-and-miss rates that spiked since his historic 2022 season, with teams concerned whether he’d make enough contact to even provide power, now are regretting that they allowed the White Sox to virtually steal Murakami with a modest two-year, $34 million contract.

Murakami is soft-spoken and humble about his early heroics, saying he simply is happy that he’s contributing, but his bat is doing a whole lot of talking.

Q&A

What records is Munetaka Murakami breaking in MLB?

Munetaka Murakami is the first Japanese-born player to hit nine home runs in his first 23 games and the first player since 1900 to hit nine homers and have more than 20 walks in that span.

How many consecutive games has Munetaka Murakami homered?

Munetaka Murakami has homered in four consecutive games.

Which teams did Munetaka Murakami hit his home runs against?

Murakami hit his home runs during games played with the Chicago White Sox against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Who are the other Japanese players that have homered in four consecutive games?

The only other Japanese players to have homered in four consecutive games are Shohei Ohtani and Seiya Suzuki.