Munetaka Murakami’s homer streak ends, but Andrew Benintendi’s blast seals red-hot White Sox’ win

PHOENIX — Munetaka Murakami’s house run tear got here to an finish Thursday, but Andrew Benintendi carried the torch for a rejuvenated White Sox offense of their 4-1 win over the Diamondbacks.

The veteran Benintendi slammed a three-run, ninth-inning homer off nearer Paul Sewald to sign a three-game collection win in Arizona — and put an exclamation mark on an invigorating West Coast street journey after starter Davis Martin’s newest spectacular outing.

While the Sox’ unprecedented dinger bonanza got here to an finish, Munetaka Murakami, Colson Mongomery and Miguel Vargas every tagged singles, three for the shortstop.

They’d been on a West Coast tear with Vargas homering in three straight video games, Montgomery in 4 straight and Murakami for a franchise-record-tying 5 — the primary time in MLB historical past {that a} trio of teammates ever went on such torrid streaks concurrently.

Vargas nonetheless put the Sox on the board with an RBI single within the third inning, and had a fly ball fall just a few ft shy of holding his run alive within the ninth. Murakami struck out 3 times but additionally made a diving cease within the area.

After getting tagged for an RBI double within the first inning, Martin settled down, underscoring his standing because the workers’s most reliable arm. He traded zeroes with D-backs starter and former Sox pitcher Michael Soroka and the Arizona bullpen till supervisor Will Venable gave him the hook within the seventh inning after giving up a single.

Grant Taylor entered and gave up a double, but struck his manner out of the jam, incomes a dugout kiss from a grateful Martin, who sprinkled six hits and a stroll over his 6⅓ innings with seven strikeouts.

The Sox carried momentum with them again to Chicago after a six-game street journey that noticed their workforce OPS soar greater than 100 factors whereas scoring 41 runs and slugging 15 house runs. Most of these got here from the guts of the order in Vargas, Montgomery and Murakami, who has put himself within the nationwide highlight with a five-game homer streak.

The on-field outburst has been a deal with for Venable, but he identified first at what is going on on off the sphere.

“For me, it’s what’s going on in the clubhouse and these hitter meetings and how these guys are connected and just creating the connection and vibe,” Venable mentioned earlier than the collection finale. “When you’re scoring runs, it’s easier to do that. But it’s some of the things that we saw even before we started scoring runs, the way that they communicate with each other, the way that [hitting coach Derek Shomon] runs those meetings, and guys are talking about their approaches and sharing ideas and then going out here and executing it.”