{"id":629110,"date":"2026-03-18T00:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T00:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/629110\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T00:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T00:52:14","slug":"munetaka-murakami-goes-yard-in-first-chicago-game-since-wbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/629110\/","title":{"rendered":"Munetaka Murakami goes yard in first Chicago game since WBC"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Japan was eliminated from the World Baseball Classic<\/a>, Munetaka Murakami made his way back to the Chicago White Sox<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In his first Spring Training<\/a> game back, Murakami didn’t skip a beat<\/a> as he hit his first home run, per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. The White Sox beat the Athletics 6-4 as Murakami went 1-for-4.<\/p>\n

He is embarking on a rookie season filled with anticipation<\/a> of possibly contending for the American League Rookie of the Year. Last December, the White Sox signed Murakami to a $34 million contract<\/a> from the Tokyo Yakult Swallows of the Nippon Professional Baseball League in Japan.<\/p>\n

Altogether, Murakami played with the Yakult Swallows for seven seasons from 2018 to 2025. He was a two-time MVP, 2022 Triple Crown winner, and four-time All-Star. Overall, Murakami finished his NPB career with a .270 batting average, 246 home runs, and 647 RBIs.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Murakami was part of the Japanese team that won the World Baseball Classic. Two years earlier, he helped lead Japan to a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the White Sox are looking to bounce back after their second consecutive last-place finish in 2025, going 60-102. On March 23, the White Sox will conclude their Spring Training schedule by playing against the Athletics.<\/p>\n

Their season opener will be on the road against the Milwaukee Brewers on March 26. Afterward, Chicago will have their home opener on April 2 against the defending American League champion Toronto Blue Jays.<\/p>\n

During the WBC, Murakami batted .211, went 5-for-19 at the plate, hit a home run, and came away with five RBIs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Japan was eliminated from the World Baseball Classic, Munetaka Murakami made his way back to the Chicago…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2379],"tags":[5,138,49,2561,4,151,396,2562,4820],"class_list":{"0":"post-629110","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-white-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-white-sox","11":"tag-chicagowhitesox","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-spring-training","14":"tag-white-sox","15":"tag-whitesox","16":"tag-world-baseball-classic"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116247445971407722","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}