Murakami’s Tearaway Start
- Munetaka Murakami hit his 10th home run in his first 24 games, the fastest such pace by a Japanese MLB player. - That hot start moved him to second in the league home run rankings and drew major online attention. - The surge is part of early-season MLB storylines that include the Cubs’ eight straight wins at Wrigley and other individual streaks (x.com) (x.com).
Munetaka Murakami reached 10 home runs in his first 24 Major League games on April 22, the quickest such start by a Japanese-born player. (mlb.com) The Chicago White Sox rookie hit his latest homer in the seventh inning of an 11-7 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, extending his streak to five straight games with a home run. MLB.com said he tied the White Sox club mark for homering in five consecutive games. (mlb.com 1) (mlb.com 2) Murakami debuted on March 26 and had 10 homers, 19 runs batted in and a 1.026 on-base plus slugging percentage through 24 games. ESPN’s game log shows he homered in his first three games, then again on April 14, April 17, April 18, April 19, April 21 and April 22. (mlb.com) (espn.com) That pace put Murakami second in the majors in home runs entering April 23. Baseball-Reference listed him among the league leaders, and MLB.com had him tied for third at eight homers three days earlier before the two-game burst in Arizona moved him up. (baseball-reference.com) (mlb.com) The start stands out beyond Chicago because Murakami arrived with one of the biggest power resumes in Japanese baseball. MLB.com’s player bio says the left-handed hitter was born in Kumamoto, Japan, played for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows and was managed there by former White Sox pitcher Shingo Takatsu. (mlb.com) Murakami’s first week in the majors also set the tone for the attention around him. MLB.com reported on March 28 that he opened his career with home runs in each of his first two games, a feat that immediately put him on a short historical list. (mlb.com) His surge landed in a week when other early-season runs were stacking up around the league. The Cubs won their eighth straight game on April 22, their longest April winning streak since 1970, while Arizona’s Ildemaro Vargas carried a 17-game hitting streak to open 2026 into the same White Sox-Diamondbacks series. (chicago.suntimes.com) (mlb.com) For the White Sox, the homers have come even as the team opened 9-15. Murakami’s fifth straight game with a homer ended in another loss Wednesday, but it left him with the kind of April stat line that already sits near the top of the sport. (mlb.com) (baseball-reference.com)
