Murakami’s hot start

Munetaka Murakami reached 10 home runs in his first 24 Major League games, a faster start than any Japanese-born player had managed before him. (mlb.com) Murakami hit No. 10 on April 22 in Arizona, a 454-foot shot off Ryan Thompson that also extended his home-run streak to five straight games. Major League Baseball said that streak tied Shohei Ohtani for the longest by a Japanese-born player. (mlb.com) Baseball-Reference lists Murakami with 10 homers, 21 hits and a 1.026 OPS through 24 games after his March 26 debut with the Chicago White Sox. ESPN’s game log shows the same total through April 22. (baseball-reference.com, espn.com) The pace stands out because Murakami arrived with one of the biggest power resumes in Japanese baseball. MLB notes that he hit 56 home runs for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in 2022, breaking Sadaharu Oh’s single-season record for a Japanese-born player in Nippon Professional Baseball. (mlb.com) His first month in the majors has turned that reputation into immediate production. MLB reported on April 20 that Murakami already had eight home runs, tied for third-most in the majors at that point, and was tracking toward a 58-homer pace. (mlb.com) The burst has come on a last-place White Sox club, not the Mets. Yahoo Sports and MLB both identified Murakami this week as a bright spot for Chicago while the club tried to build on a brief offensive surge during its trip through Sacramento and Arizona. (sports.yahoo.com, mlb.com) New York’s 12-game losing streak was a separate National League story on April 22, when the Mets beat Minnesota 3-2 to end their worst skid since 2002. Murakami’s run and the Mets’ slump were both part of the same day’s baseball conversation, but they involved different teams in different leagues. (sports.yahoo.com) Murakami is also piling up milestones beyond the 10-homer pace. MLB said his fifth straight game with a homer matched an MLB rookie record that has been reached 13 times, and tied a White Sox franchise record for consecutive games with a home run. (mlb.com) For now, the cleanest way to read the start is this: Murakami did not just bring Japanese-league power to Chicago, he brought it into the majors on Day 1 and kept it going for 24 games. (mlb.com, baseball-reference.com)