{"id":701096,"date":"2026-05-17T06:15:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T06:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/701096\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T06:15:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T06:15:18","slug":"city-series-white-sox-hit-5-home-runs-in-8-3-win-against-cubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/701096\/","title":{"rendered":"City Series: White Sox hit 5 home runs in 8-3 win against Cubs"},"content":{"rendered":"

White Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami hadn\u2019t\u00a0hit a home run since May 8<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The first baseman got back in the swing of things on the City Series stage Saturday, connecting for two long balls as the White Sox pummeled the Cubs 8-3 in front of a sellout crowd of 38,795 at Rate Field.<\/p>\n

The Sox hammered five home runs while squaring the City Series<\/a>\u00a0at one game apiece.<\/p>\n

Game 2 photos: White Sox beat Cubs 8-3 in City Series at Rate Field<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Third baseman Miguel Vargas had a three-run home run in the first inning, while Murakami and shortstop Colson Montgomery each hit solo shots in the third. Murakami added a two-run blast in the fifth for the first multi-home-run game of his career. Andrew Benintendi added a solo home run in the sixth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just not one person,\u201d Murakami said through an interpreter. \u201cIt\u2019s the full lineup, one through nine. Feeding off each other. It\u2019s a great confidence builder, seeing other players get good results.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to be that contributor and contribute to the lineup and contribute to the team\u2019s wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murakami now sits atop the American League with 17 home runs and is second in the majors to Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber, who has 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a superstar,\u201d Sox starter Davis Martin said of Murakami. \u201cThere\u2019s no other way to do it. You play against guys like (Mike) Trout, you play against guys like (Aaron) Judge and Yordan \u00c1lvarez, and he\u2019s doing the same things that they are. It\u2019s an incredible thing to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sox entered the day as the only team in the majors to have three players with at least 10 home runs in Murakami, Montgomery and Vargas. And the trio came up big Saturday, helping the Sox return to one game over .500 at 23-22.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally special to see those guys do that,\u201d Sox manager Will Venable said. \u201cThe guys in the middle have been doing it really seems like every day. (Benintendi) looked great, too, so there was a lot of great stuff up and down the lineup.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CubsCubs starter Jameson Taillon walks to the dugout after being pulled from the game in the sixth inning against the White Sox on May 16, 2026, at Rate Field. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Cubs starter Jameson Taillon surrendered all five long balls. He allowed eight runs on eight hits with two strikeouts and one walk in five-plus innings, exiting after Benintendi\u2019s home run leading off the sixth.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust didn\u2019t execute against them, got in some weird counts and stuff,\u201d Taillon said. \u201cTo be completely honest, I don\u2019t think some of those pitches were that bad. It\u2019s a sign that they had a good game plan and it\u2019s on me now to punch back and adjust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin, meanwhile, continued his marvelous 2026<\/a>. The right-hander allowed one run, a homer in the sixth to catcher Miguel Amaya, on five hits with seven strikeouts and no walks in six innings. Center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong hit a two-run shot in the ninth against reliever Trevor Richards.<\/p>\n

All 11 runs in the game were scored on home runs.<\/p>\n

\"WhiteWhite Sox third baseman Miguel Vargas hits a three-run home run in the first inning against the Cubs on May 16, 2026, at Rate Field. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Martin received offensive support early. Left fielder Sam Antonacci<\/a> reached on a single, skipping a grounder past second baseman Matt Shaw. Murakami walked and then Vargas lined a 1-1 sinker over the left-center wall for his 11th home run of the season and second of the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe walked Mune, I was just trying to see a good pitch where I can drive a run,\u201d Vargas said. \u201cI got lucky and I put a good swing on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murakami broke out of his homerless stretch in the third, lofting a long, high fly that was just out of the reach of a leaping Crow-Armstrong in center field for his 16th home run of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously he sets a real high expectation, continues to have good at-bats, make good swing decisions and gets really good swings off and when he does, they usually go over the fence,\u201d Venable said.<\/p>\n

Later in the inning, Montgomery jumped on a 2-0 cutter and kept the ball fair down the right-field line. The home run, Montgomery\u2019s 13th, stood after a video review.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are really good teammates and the centerpiece of the team, as well as everybody,\u201d Murakami said of Vargas and Montgomery. \u201cI\u2019m really happy we are on the same squad. We want to keep continuing a day like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a pause in the action in the fourth inning when plate umpire Brian O\u2019Nora exited with concussion-like symptoms after getting hit by a foul ball. During the break, Sox and Cubs fans chanted \u201cGreen Bay sucks,\u201d which was followed by the Bears fight song playing in the ballpark.<\/p>\n

The home runs continued following the delay. Murakami took over the AL lead with his two-run shot in the fifth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know he\u2019s got power and we threw some balls in places he could get them,\u201d Cubs manager Craig Counsell said.<\/p>\n

Benintendi\u2019s home run leading off the sixth made it 8-1. It\u2019s the first time they hit five homers in a game since Sept. 15, 2022, in Cleveland, when they also hit five<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"WhiteWhite Sox starter Davis Martin is pumped up after striking out Cubs right fielder Seiya Suzuki to end the sixth inning on May 16, 2026, at Rate Field. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

The Cubs (29-17) couldn\u2019t string much together offensively against Martin, who worked out of jams in the fourth and sixth innings while improving to 6-1. He is third in the majors with a 1.61 ERA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nerves and the anxiety before the game after watching the game last night with just the amount of energy there (and) obviously a great team on the side, knew it was going to be a challenge,\u201d Martin said. \u201cIt was a lot of fun just going out there and competing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"White Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami hadn\u2019t\u00a0hit a home run since May 8. The first baseman got back in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[1000,5,138,24,49,4245,12075,10448,576,161,88220,5285,5173,728,4154,4,73,35,88225,998],"class_list":["post-701096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-cubs","tag-andrew-benintendi","tag-baseball","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-chicagocubs","tag-city-series","tag-colson-montgomery","tag-craig-counsell","tag-cubs","tag-cubs-white-sox-score","tag-davis-martin","tag-jameson-taillon","tag-miguel-amaya","tag-miguel-vargas","tag-mlb","tag-munetaka-murakami","tag-pete-crow-armstrong","tag-white-sox-cubs","tag-will-venable"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116588453887328333","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701096","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=701096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}