{"id":645828,"date":"2026-03-27T04:07:42","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T04:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/645828\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T04:07:42","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T04:07:42","slug":"murakami-caps-his-mlb-debut-with-a-homer-in-white-soxs-14-2-loss-to-brewers-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/645828\/","title":{"rendered":"Murakami caps his MLB debut with a homer in White Sox’s 14-2 loss to Brewers"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILWAUKEE (AP) \u2014 Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami wasted no time hitting his first homer<\/a> in the major leagues.<\/p>\n

The circumstances surrounding that drive left the Chicago White Sox first baseman in no mood to celebrate.<\/p>\n

Chicago was trailing 14-1 in the ninth inning when Murakami capped his MLB debut by sending a 1-1 pitch from Milwaukee\u2019s Jake Woodford over the right field wall. Murakami\u2019s 384-foot shot with a 103-mph exit velocity closed the scoring in the White Sox\u2019s 14-2 season-opening loss Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy that I was able to take the first step as a major league baseball player, but at the end of the day, we lost the game,\u201d Murakami said through interpreter Kenzo Yagi. \u201cThis is what I\u2019m mostly disappointed about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White Sox signed Murakami to a two-year, $34 million contract in hopes that his power could boost a team that\u2019s lost more than 100 games each of the last three seasons. Murakami hit 246 homers over eight seasons with the Yakult Swallows of Japan\u2019s Central League \u2013 including a 56-homer season in 2022.<\/p>\n

Murakami showed signs Thursday that he could deliver. He drew a pair of walks against Jacob Misiorowski \u2014 the Brewers\u2019 flame-throwing right-hander \u2014 and reached base on three of his four plate appearances.<\/p>\n

Much of the concern surrounding Murakami regarded his high strikeout totals in Japan and whether he\u2019d be able to make consistent contact against major league pitching. Yet on a day when White Sox batters struck out 20 times, Murakami and Luisangel Acu\u00f1a were the only Chicago starters who didn\u2019t strike out.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat day overall for him,\u201d White Sox manager Will Venable. \u201cHe controlled the zone really well. To ger that one (homer) out of the way was nice for him. Great swing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chicago’s 20 strikeouts matched the highest total by any lineup ever in a nine-inning game, according to Sportradar. Thursday marked the 10th time it has happened.<\/p>\n

Murakami, 26, said he was surprised that he felt \u201cfairly collected\u201d and didn\u2019t have the jitters that might be expected from someone making his debut. That was apparent from the two walks he picked up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was able to look at the ball really well,\u201d Murakami said. \u201cI was really patient in the box.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Murakami didn\u2019t leave his debut with a win, he did get a memento. Steve Pollack, a fan wearing Brewers gear, caught Murakami\u2019s home-run ball and gave it back to him in exchange for an autographed bat.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody wanted us to give it to the kids behind us,\u201d Pollack said as he held his new bat outside the White Sox\u2019s locker room.<\/p>\n

Pollack said it was the first home-run ball he had ever caught. Murakami expressed gratitude to the fan while indicating where the ball will end up going.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll probably send it home, back to Japan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILWAUKEE (AP) \u2014 Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami wasted no time hitting his first homer in the major leagues.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2401],"tags":[5,136,11714,18680,82743,843,59,4280,4,82741,9501,9496,15187,82744,82742,998],"class_list":["post-645828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-milwaukee-brewers","tag-baseball","tag-brewers","tag-jacob-misiorowski","tag-jake-woodford","tag-kenzo-yagi","tag-milwaukee","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-milwaukeebrewers","tag-mlb","tag-munetaka-murakami-white-sox","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-40784-ap-illinois-sports-only","tag-product-40822-ap-wisconsin-sports-only","tag-steve-pollack","tag-will-venable"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116299173519658193","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645828","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=645828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}