Munetaka Murakami kept the power show rolling Friday night, going deep twice as the Chicago White Sox beat the Colorado Rockies 6-1 and moved another step closer to the postseason.
Murakami’s pair of homers pushed his season total to 35, and it marked the third multi-homer game of his rookie year. Chicago also got a two-RBI night from Kyle Teel and three hits from Sam Antonacci in a win that helped the White Sox continue pressing in the AL Central.
The White Sox, already locked into at least a wild card, improved to 83-77 and have now taken five of their last six. They started the night one game back of division-leading Cleveland, which was playing at Kansas City, and Chicago owns the tiebreaker.
Sean Burke was sharp enough to keep the Rockies in check, giving up one run and four hits over 5 1/3 innings. Three relievers finished off the four-hitter from there.
The White Sox also made a bit of history on defense. Colson Montgomery struck out looking in the fifth inning against Tomoyuki Sugano, giving him 224 strikeouts on the season and setting a new major league record. He broke Mark Reynolds’ mark of 223, set in 2009.
Colorado’s slide kept getting uglier. The Rockies have now dropped 17 of their last 20 and sit at a major league-worst 57-103, matching their 2023 total for the second-most losses in club history behind last year’s 119. They’ve also become the first team to suffer four straight 100-loss seasons since the 1962-65 New York Mets.
TJ Rumfield supplied Colorado’s lone homer.
Sugano took the loss, his seventh straight, after allowing four runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings.
Colorado will send left-hander José Quintana (2-3, 5.44 ERA) to the mound Saturday night against one of his former teams. The White Sox will counter with right-hander Davis Martin (9-7, 3.84).
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