Murakami breaks out as White Sox salvage finale against Houston

For White Sox rookie slugger Munetaka Murakami, Sunday was a celebration of the most joyous kind.

• At Rate Field, the White Sox gave away a bobblehead commemorating Murakami’s first home run, a ninth-inning solo shot against the Milwaukee Brewers on Opening Day that doubled as his first hit in Major League Baseball.

• His 13-game homerless streak, the longest of his nascent big league career, was snapped

• Murakami-themed sushi roll dubbed the “Muneshot Sushi push-pop” continued to sell in droves.

All that happened with Murakami’s parents, Fumiyo (mom) and Kimiya (dad), in attendance. The pair were on hand to throw out the first pitch before the White Sox’s 12-3 drubbing of the Houston Astros, one to Murakami and the other to his interpreter, Kenzo Yagi.

The 26-year-old opened his day with a two-run blast in the first inning, then added an RBI groundout in the third and a final solo shot in the eighth to push his White Sox to six games above .500. With the win and a loss by the Cleveland Guardians to the Tampa Bay Rays, Chicago now holds a 2 1/2 game lead in the AL Central.

It’s a welcomed cushion before the White Sox play host to the Yankees for four games; New York has the American League’s best run differential (plus-91) and is 7-3 over its past 10 games.

Beyond serving as another neat MLB collectible in a season full of them, Murakami’s bobblehead was an homage to everything that has made the former Nippon Professional Baseball star so endearing to fans.

Inscribed on the base of the bobblehead were the words “I have power,” a phrase that Murakami uttered when asked what makes him such a dangerous hitter. The bobblehead itself was sponsored by Toto Washlets, an electronic bidet. The bidet was a request that Murakami made to the White Sox after he visited the club’s facilities during his negotiations.

“I use the bathroom a lot,” Murakami said then. “I don’t want to deal with a stomach ache and not feel like playing, so I’d rather get that taken care of and feel good. In Japan, I used one all the time, so I figured it’d be better to have the washlet function here, too. I told my agent that was something I wanted.”

As for the Murakami sushi pops that come in California and shrimp varieties, the White Sox estimate they’ve sold roughly 1,500 and counting, per MLB.com.

Sunday served as another highlight for a journey that didn’t initially start as such.

Despite a decorated career in NPB for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, including the single-season home run record for a Japanese-born player, as well as the youngest triple crown in history, his posting was tepid at best.

His 45-day posting window carried late until the White Sox inked the slugger to a straight two-year, $34 million deal that would allow for Murakami to test the market before his age-28 season. The deal was a far cry from the eight-year contract worth $158.5 million that The Athletic’s Tim Britton projected him for at the onset of the winter.

Murakami’s below-average defense, propensity to strike out and weak contact against higher velocity led to a lukewarm market, with some questioning whether his profile could translate to MLB.

“That just kind of is who he is, so the strikeout percentage is going to be there,” a National League Pacific Rim scout told The Athletic last November. “It’s just going to be, ‘Can he get to enough home-run damage to make it worth it?’ Is it going to be closer to Kyle Schwarber production or Joey Gallo production?”

Evaluators were mostly correct in their assessment.

Murakami’s 33% strikeout rate and 42.9% whiff rate are among the worst marks in the league, on par with big-time strikeout players like Schwarber and Oneil Cruz. Yet, Murakami also doesn’t chase very often, his discipline nearly on par with Steven Kwan and just behind Juan Soto. He also walks at an elite clip, battling Soto and Nick Kurtz for the best rate in baseball at 18.4%.

And the power? It was on full display Sunday and has been throughout his rookie campaign. Murakami’s barrel percentage, hard-hit rate and exit velocity numbers stand toe to toe with some of MLB’s best sluggers, as does his bat speed.

The defense has also been largely passable.

With 22 homers after Sunday’s pair of blasts, Murakami should find himself a finalist for the AL Rookie of the Year. That, plus a spot in the 2026 Home Run Derby and an All-Star nod, are all part of a stellar rookie campaign. The bobblehead, sushi pop and bidets are all just cherries on top.

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