{"id":663498,"date":"2026-04-04T22:06:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T22:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/663498\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T22:06:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T22:06:20","slug":"white-soxs-munetaka-murakami-hits-4th-hr-in-1st-8-mlb-games-besting-shohei-ohtanis-record-by-japanese-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/663498\/","title":{"rendered":"White Sox’s Munetaka Murakami hits 4th HR in 1st 8 MLB games, besting Shohei Ohtani’s record by Japanese player"},"content":{"rendered":"

Munetaka Murakami probably won\u2019t surpass Shohei Ohtani for many major-league records, but the Chicago White Sox third baseman overtook the four-time MVP with a record for Japanese players in Saturday\u2019s 6-3 win<\/a> over the Toronto Blue Jays.<\/p>\n

Murakami, 26. became the first Japanese player to hit four home runs in the initial eight games of his MLB career, according to Sarah Langs<\/a>. In the sixth inning, Blue Jays reliever Brendon Little hung a sinker in the inner middle of the strike zone and Murakami launched it to straight-away center field for his first homer at Rate Field.<\/p>\n

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With that fourth home run, Murakami overtook Ohtani, who hit three home runs in his first eight games<\/a> with the Los Angeles Angels during the 2018 season.<\/p>\n

During the opening week of the 2026 campaign, Murakami joined a notable club by becoming the fourth player in major-league history<\/a> to hit three home runs in his first three games of the season.<\/p>\n

However, one of those four players \u2014 Cleveland Guardians outfielder Chase DeLauter \u2014 separated himself from the pack on Friday by hitting his fifth home run in his first seven games<\/a>. Only Trevor Story, who hit seven home runs in his first seven games as a rookie with the Colorado Rockies, has more.<\/p>\n

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Murakami signed a two-year, $34 million contract<\/a> with the White Sox in December. He was ranked by Yahoo Sports\u2019 Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman as the sixth-best free agent available<\/a> this past offseason.<\/p>\n

In 2021, Murakami won the Japan Central League MVP with the Yakult Swallows, compiling a triple-slash line of .278\/.408\/.566 with 39 home runs and 122 RBI. He topped those numbers the following season, breaking Japanese baseball legend Sadaharu Oh\u2019s single-season record with 56 home runs, adding a slash average of .318\/.458\/.710 with 134 RBI and 118 walks.<\/p>\n

That performance made Murakami the youngest Triple Crown winner in Nippon Professional Baseball history at 22 years old.<\/p>\n

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In 34 plate appearances this season, Murakami has a .250\/.353\/.679 slash line, demonstrating that he can hit for power in MLB but also thus far confirming the concerns about him hitting for contac<\/a>t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Munetaka Murakami probably won\u2019t surpass Shohei Ohtani for many major-league records, but the Chicago White Sox third baseman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[5,377,1208,22912,138,49,2561,51,52,5572,56,4,73,468,70,1035,396,2562],"class_list":{"0":"post-663498","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-blue-jays","10":"tag-brendon-little","11":"tag-chase-delauter","12":"tag-chicago","13":"tag-chicago-white-sox","14":"tag-chicagowhitesox","15":"tag-cleveland-guardians","16":"tag-colorado-rockies","17":"tag-japanese-players","18":"tag-los-angeles-angels","19":"tag-mlb","20":"tag-munetaka-murakami","21":"tag-shohei-ohtani","22":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","23":"tag-trevor-story","24":"tag-white-sox","25":"tag-whitesox"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116348714329353407","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663498","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=663498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}