Munetaka Murakami hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning Monday night, puncturing the Los Angeles Angels' lead and sending the Chicago White Sox to an 8-7 victory at Rate Field.
The rally began when Andrew Benintendi drove a two-run double off Nick Sandlin to cut the Angels' lead to one, and seconds later Murakami greeted Drew Pomeranz with a drive to right-center for his major league-best 12th home run — a three-run blast that put Chicago ahead. Miguel Vargas followed with another homer, a solo shot that made it 8-5 and completed the seven-run seventh, the White Sox's biggest inning of the season.
Numbers underscored the night: Chicago scored seven runs in the seventh inning, won 8-7, and improved to 6-4 in their last 10 games. Benintendi finished with three RBI for the White Sox. Tristan Peters supplied three hits, scored twice and helped keep Chicago in position to rally. On the other side, Mike Trout had two hits and scored twice, and Jorge Soler hit a solo homer for Los Angeles.
The Angels entered the rain-delayed opener of a three-game series with a 5-1 lead but could not hold it. The loss was Los Angeles' fourth consecutive and its eighth in nine games, a skid that deepened as relievers gave up the decisive blows: Sandlin yielded Benintendi's two-run double and Pomeranz surrendered Murakami's go-ahead shot.
Chicago leaned on its bullpen to finish the job. Osvaldo Bido earned the win, throwing three innings of one-run ball, and Bryan Hudson closed out the night with his first career save.
Murakami, a 26-year-old rookie slugger from Japan, arrived at the plate in the seventh carrying a torrid stretch: he was 15 for 43 in his last 10 games, a.349 clip that included seven homers and 14 RBI over that span. His three-run shot was his major league-best 12th of the season and the defining swing in a late comeback that erased a four-run Angels advantage.
The game itself began under skies the teams had to wait out — the start was delayed three hours by rain and thunderstorms, a weather interruption that prefaced the late-night drama. When play finally resumed, the two clubs traded homers and momentum, with Chicago's seventh inning overwhelming the earlier work of Los Angeles's offense.
The tension in the game was simple and brutal: the Angels had built a 5-1 margin but could not translate early runs into a win. Despite contributions from Trout and Soler, Los Angeles watched a lead evaporate in a 10-batter seventh that produced runs seven times for Chicago and swung the scoreboard from a comfortable advantage to a narrow defeat.
For the White Sox the result was immediate and clear — a comeback win highlighted by a rookie whose midseason surge is now carrying the club. For the Angels, the loss deepened a slide that has left them searching for answers as they dropped their fourth straight and eighth in nine games.
On a night that began under thunderstorms and a long delay, it was Murakami's swing that finished it: the 26-year-old's three-run homer turned a deficit into a lead, and his recent tear —.349, 15 for 43 with seven homers and 14 RBI in his last 10 games — did exactly what such a stretch is supposed to do, deliver victory when it mattered most.
