Chicago White Sox star Munetaka Murakami ‘devastated’ by news of earthquake in his Japanese hometown
Chicago White Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami said after Tuesday’s game with the New York Yankees his family was fine after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake devastated his Japanese hometown of Kumamoto.
At least 13 people were dead and many were injured in the earthquake, which Murakami learned about early Tuesday morning. He played Tuesday and went 1-for-4 in the Sox’ 3-2 loss to the Yankees.
Murakami said his parents, who threw out a first pitch at Rate Field on his bobblehead day Sunday, canceled the remainder of their stay in Chicago and flew home Tuesday morning after learning of the earthquake.
Murakami said he was “surprised and devastated” by the news, which he found out when he got home after Monday’s game on the South Side. The town also was hit by an earthquake 10 years ago.
“Obviously it’s really hard to swallow,” Murakami said through an interpreter. “It’s a natural disaster, so it’s nothing anyone can really expect at the moment. I was deeply in shock. And moreover, from the (one) 10 years back, (the area) was just beginning to recover in full form, so it’s really unfortunate this actually happened again. It’s a very unfortunate event.”
Murakami was able to contact family and friends back home and reported that all were safe and that his parents’ home escaped damage. He said he would help relief efforts any way he could and that he was thinking of his fans back in Japan while playing.
“I always get a lot of cheers from everybody back in Japan and that’s what gives me power to play baseball and get out there,” he said. “As a professional baseball player, I would like to give back by playing hard and something to cheer about for the people back in Kumamoto.”
Murakami spoke to the Japanese media after the 3-2 loss, and his remarks were then translated for the American media.
In the game, a ninth-inning Sox rally fell short before a large crowd of 33,743 at Rate Field, most of whom stuck around for the ending.
The Sox players are looking at their four-game showdown with the Yankees as a playoff-type series, playing like everything is on the line on a cool July night.
But to make it to October, they’re going to first have to prove they’re playoff-worthy, which the Sox have failed to do in the first two games of the series.
“We are playing well,” manager Will Venable said afterward. “I think the main point for us right is defensively to clean some things up, (and) baserunning clean some things up, which I thought we did a good job of today. Gotta keep moving forward finding ways to score against really good pitchers.”
Gerrit Cole silenced the crowd at the Rate, throwing six shutout innings with seven strikeouts as the Yankees beat the Sox for the fourth time in five meetings this season.
Chase Meidroth’s two-out, two-run home run off David Bednar in the ninth made things interesting, but Bednar struck Everson Pereira out on a splitter to end it.
Cole stifled the Sox on four hits over six innings, and made a highlight-reel catch of a Colson Montgomery popup in the second, flipping it out of his glove and then snaring it with his right hand.
The Sox will not win for the second straight series at home and have dropped five of their last seven. Their American League Central lead over the Cleveland Guardians was down to 1½ games after the Guardians won earlier in the day.
Sox starter Anthony Kay had one bad inning, and that was all the Yankees needed with Cole on the mound. It’s not surprising to be dominated by Cole, who makes $36 million per year, or more than three times the combined salaries of the current White Sox starters.
But the Sox also looked helpless on Saturday against Houston’s Hunter Brown. If they make the playoffs, the Sox are going to have to learn how to beat pitchers like Cole and Brown, and quality teams like the Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays, who they meet this weekend.
After Kay struck out the side in the first, the Yankees answered with three runs in the second on Anthony Volpe’s RBI double and a two-run single by Max Schuemann.
“Yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve done that,” Kay said of his three first-inning strikeouts. “It’s cool. I thought I’d have a good one after that and kind of got humbled after the second inning. Then you’ve got to lock back in.”
Kay allowed only one more hit the rest of the way, lasting 5⅓ innings. He hasn’t pitched six innings since June 22 against the Guardians, and Sox starters have only two starts of six or more innings since the All-Star break — both from Sean Burke.
That’s put more pressure on the bullpen, which has been a strength thus far but could be tiring with the recent workload. Monday’s MLB trade deadline might help matters, but the Sox have to add starting and relief help, along with a catcher and a left-handed bat for the bench.
With the Sox in a pennant race, little things matter, and no one is going to pat them on the back for a moral victory, as they might have in a close loss one year ago. Venable remained confident the Sox aren’t in a slide, despite the 1-4 record on the homestand.
“Sometimes it’s just how the chips fall and this stretch here at home just hasn’t been as clean and as good as we hoped for,” he said. “Got an opportunity tomorrow.”
The degree of difficulty only increases on Wednesday when Yankees All-Star Cam Schlitter faces Davis Martin in Game 3.