Murakami ties MLB rookie homer streak, powers White Sox with 10th blast

Munetaka Murakami is turning a hot start into something bigger for the Chicago White Sox, one towering swing at a time. His latest blast, a 451-foot drive to right-center field at Chase Field, tied the major league rookie record for home runs in five straight games and lifted his season total to 10.

The two-run homer came in the seventh inning off Arizona reliever Ryan Thompson and trimmed the Diamondbacks’ lead to 10-7 before Arizona closed out an 11-7 win on April 22, 2026. At a game played before 20,799 fans in 3:02, Murakami’s shot gave Chicago its briefest glimpse of a comeback in a night that otherwise reinforced how much the White Sox still rely on his bat to stay relevant.

Will Venable sounded almost spent on the subject afterward. “I’ve run out of things to say,” the White Sox manager said, before pointing to Murakami’s swing decisions, contact quality and the damage he can do even on pitches he does not square up perfectly. That description fits the early evidence: Murakami’s homer streak has become less a fluke than a sign that major league pitchers have not found a consistent answer yet.

The power surge has already put Murakami in rare company. He became the 13th rookie in big-league history to homer in five consecutive games, and his 10 home runs trail only Houston’s Yordan Alvarez in the majors. AP also noted that Murakami’s 10 homers are the most in MLB history by a Japanese-born player in his first 24 career games. Eight of those home runs have come on the road, a sign that the rookie is not just feeding off one park or one matchup.

The record watch is not over. MLB.com says the all-time major league mark for consecutive games with a homer is eight, shared by Ken Griffey Jr., Don Mattingly and Dale Long. Murakami is now within striking distance, and he already matched a White Sox franchise streak that has also been shared by A.J. Pierzynski, Paul Konerko, Carlos Lee, Frank Thomas, Ron Kittle and Greg Luzinski.

Murakami’s rise carries extra weight for a White Sox team that signed him to a two-year, $34 million deal and has leaned on him alongside Colson Montgomery and Miguel Vargas during a broader power burst. MLB.com noted that Murakami was managed in Japan by Shingo Takatsu, the first Japanese-born player in White Sox franchise history, a reminder that this breakout links Chicago’s present to an older cross-cultural thread. Born Feb. 2, 2000, in Kumamoto, Japan, and making his White Sox debut on March 26, Murakami is beginning to look less like a short-lived sensation than a player capable of changing the timeline and the expectations around a rebuilding club.