{"id":766704,"date":"2026-08-01T00:24:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T00:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/766704\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T00:24:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T00:24:32","slug":"a-closer-look-at-the-chicago-white-sox-offense-entering-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/766704\/","title":{"rendered":"A closer look at the Chicago White Sox offense entering August"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Munetaka Murakami\u2019s unique talents at the plate were on display during a short but impactful at-bat in the eighth inning Wednesday<\/a> against the New York Yankees.<\/p>\n

The Chicago White Sox first baseman connected on a first-pitch curveball from Paul Blackburn and drove it 404 feet over the wall in left-center for a game-tying home run.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat location is a pitcher\u2019s pitch, early curveball down and away,\u201d Sox director of hitting Ryan Fuller said Thursday at Rate Field. \u201cHis ability to stay on the baseball and stay through that pitch is so special.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then it\u2019s the physical gifts he has too. The bat speed, the physicality to be able to hit the ball out of the park. Most guys, if they swing at that, it\u2019s hit off the end, a pop-up to the shortstop.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see the special gifts Mune has where even when he didn\u2019t hit the ball perfectly, he\u2019s still able to muscle it out of here. You see those special attributes and you just enjoy watching it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murakami, who is second on the Sox and tied for seventh in the American League with 23 home runs, has been a key contributor to a team that sits atop the AL Central standings entering a weekend series against the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field.<\/p>\n

As July comes to an end, Fuller offered some offensive observations.<\/p>\n

Murakami was one of three players to represent the Sox at the All-Star Game with third baseman Miguel Vargas and center fielder Tristan Peters.\u00a0Vargas\u2019 progress since joining the Sox in a July 2024 trade is an example Fuller uses for players throughout the organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the Dodgers, one of their best prospects,\u201d Fuller said. \u201cHe comes over here, gets hit in the gut a little bit, has to make adjustments. Where he is now is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peters\u2019 season also has been an \u201cincredible story,\u201d Fuller said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no secret, when camp broke and he\u2019s on the team, he was asked to, \u2018Hey, you\u2019re going to bunt a lot and play really good defense,’\u201d Fuller said. \u201cYou fast forward, and he\u2019s an All-Star and one of our best hitters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peters, whose walk-off walk with the bases loaded wrapped up Thursday\u2019s 2-1 victory<\/a> against the Yankees, was hitless in his last 17 at-bats coming into Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike all these guys, you were an All-Star, now you need to make adjustments,\u201d Fuller said. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be parts of the zone that you covered before that they\u2019re just not going to go to. They\u2019re going to attack different parts (and) we have to do a really good job of combating that. And he\u2019s working through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WhiteWhite Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery hits an RBI single during the fifth inning against the Yankees on Monday, July 27, 2026, at Rate Field. (Armando L. Sanchez\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Shortstop Colson Montgomery is among the Sox players going through his first full big-league season. Called up last July, Montgomery hit 21 home runs in 71 games in 2025. He has 24 homers in 102 games this season.<\/p>\n

The left-handed-hitting Montgomery entered Friday slashing .265\/.336\/.537 with eight homers against left-handed pitchers. He had a .195\/.281\/.408 slash line with 16 homers against right-handers.<\/p>\n

\u201cLefties hitting lefties is one of the hardest things to do in baseball,\u201d Fuller said. \u201cYou\u2019re doing something that is so hard that some guys spend their whole career trying to figure out, and you\u2019re doing it. That\u2019s a strength. How can we take that approach and tailor it to the righties too?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll be the first one to tell you, regardless of who\u2019s on the mound, I\u2019m trying to hit a line drive over the shortstop\u2019s head, I\u2019m trying to take out the shortstop. So now it\u2019s how do we make the small adjustments physically to make sure that he\u2019s staying closed, staying on the ball as he is against lefties versus righties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fuller said of rookie outfielders Sam Antonacci (hitting .289 since June 1) and Braden Montgomery (.288 over his last 14 games): \u201cThese guys are so impressive and they love coming to the ballpark and working with each other every day. That\u2019s a huge piece to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A big piece of the future, Roch Cholowsky, already is making an impression in the organization shortly after being drafted with the No. 1 pick<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou hear all the great stuff about Roch, (and) getting to spend time with him, everything is true \u2014 leader, loves baseball, loves being one of the boys,\u201d Fuller said. \u201cAt (the recent) draft camp in Charlotte, he took every single guy that was drafted out for a steak dinner. A leader, just a really cool dude that wants to be a part of what\u2019s going on here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Munetaka Murakami\u2019s unique talents at the plate were on display during a short but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[5,6080,138,49,2561,10448,4154,4,73,11366,4070,17709,30019,396,2562],"class_list":["post-766704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-white-sox","tag-baseball","tag-braden-montgomery","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-chicagowhitesox","tag-colson-montgomery","tag-miguel-vargas","tag-mlb","tag-munetaka-murakami","tag-roch-cholowsky","tag-ryan-fuller","tag-sam-antonacci","tag-tristan-peters","tag-white-sox","tag-whitesox"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117017409472671709","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766704","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=766704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}