Munetaka Murakami injured, but White Sox sweep Tigers

White Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami will miss four to six weeks with a Grade 2 hamstring strain, which he suffered Friday night in a game against the Detroit Tigers at Rate Field.

It's not great news, especially knowing June features perhaps the toughest stretch of schedule the Sox will face all season long -- including games against the Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees and Cleveland Guardians.

However, the Sox survived Murakami's absence just fine over the weekend, sweeping the series from the last-place Tigers. Here's a look back at the weekend that was:

Friday, May 29

White Sox 4, Tigers 3, 10 innings.  Miguel Vargas got a high changeup from Detroit reliever Drew Anderson and cranked a two-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning to turn a 3-2 Tigers lead into a 4-3 Sox victory.

The Sox trailed 2-1 from the third inning until the bottom of the ninth, when they scratched across the tying run against Detroit reliever Kyle Finnegan. Back-to-back singles by Andrew Benintendi and Tristan Peters placed runners at first and third with one out.

Rikuu Nishida's safety squeeze bunt was fielded by Finnegan, and while he looked at Benintendi, he didn't force the Sox baserunner to go back to third. As soon as Finnegan threw to first to retire Nishida, Benintendi broke for the plate, and he slid safely ahead of a throw from Detroit first baseman Spencer Torkelson to tie the game.

The Tigers took a 3-2 lead in the top of the 10th, with a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly, but Anderson failed to make the lead stick. Detroit went 6-22 in the month of May. That team is finding new ways to lose. 

Saturday, May 30

White Sox 7, Tigers 1. There wasn't as much drama in this game, as the Sox scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning and led from start to finish.

Sox starter Anthony Kay (5-1) made the lead stick through the first half of the game by pitching five innings of one-run ball. The South Siders blew the game wide open late, with two runs in the seventh inning and three more in the eighth.

Edgar Quero, Colson Montgomery and Benintendi all homered in the late innings to help put the game away. Quero went 2 for 3 with a sacrifice fly, and he's pulled his batting average up to .196 after an absolutely terrible start to the season.

The Sox got four innings of scoreless work from their bullpen. Grant Taylor entered with two men on and no outs in the top of the sixth. He stranded both runners, and then struck out the side in the seventh. Seranthony Dominguez tossed a scoreless eighth. Trevor Richards mopped up in the ninth.

Sunday, May 31

White Sox 2, Tigers 1. Detroit starter Keider Montero cruised through the first six innings, needing only 65 pitches as he held the Sox scoreless on two hits. But then the Tigers took him out of the game and put in ... Anderson.

Thank you very much.

The Sox handed Anderson his second loss of the series by collecting four straight hits in the bottom of the seventh. Montgomery hit his 15th homer of the season to tie the game at 1. Chase Meidroth, Jacob Gonzalez and Peters followed with three straight singles, the last of which scored Meidroth and put the Sox ahead to stay at 2-1.

Bryan Hudson covered four outs, and then Tyler Davis retired two batters in the top of the ninth to earn his first save as a member of the Sox. 

The Sox are 21-10 in their last 31 games and 32-27 for the season. The Guardians lost two of three to the Boston Red Sox over the weekend, which moves the Sox within one game of Cleveland in the AL Central.

Next up, three games in Minneapolis against the Minnesota Twins. 

White Sox win 3 of 4 in series with Twins

The White Sox came tantalizingly close to sweeping their four-game series with the Minnesota Twins this week at Rate Field.

Better execution in the bottom of the 10th inning Tuesday night would have gotten the ghost runner home. Alas, it was not to be, and the Sox dropped that one.

However, I don't think we're in any position to complain about taking three of four from the Twins, and the Sox accomplished exactly that with a 6-2 win on Thursday afternoon.

Davis Martin (8-1) continued his mastery with six innings of one-run ball. He allowed only two hits, while striking out five and walking two.

Sox hitters tagged Minnesota starter Simeon Woods Richardson (0-7) for five earned runs over 2.2 innings. A four-run third inning proved decisive, highlighted by a two-out, three-run double by Randal Grichuk.

Some other notes after Thursday's victory:

• The Sox are now 10-1 in the 11 games Martin has started. His season ERA is 2.00. Nine of his 11 starts are quality starts, and he's given either no runs or just one run in eight of his starts.
• Grichuk has appeared in 18 games since signing with the Sox on May 4. He's batting .333 with four homers and 13 RBIs. He's slugging .694 with a 1.063 OPS in 38 plate appearances.
• The Sox have won nine of their past 10 games against the Twins, dating back to last season. They have outscored Minnesota 75-32 over that same span. Not bad considering the Sox went 1-12 against the Twins as recently as 2024. 

The Sox are 29-27, three games back of the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central. They host the Detroit Tigers for a three-game series over the weekend. We'll talk about that series here on Monday. 

White Sox pitcher David Sandlin dominates Twins in MLB debut

David Sandlin's first major league start probably couldn't have started much worse. The second pitch of his career got knocked out the park by Minnesota's Byron Buxton.

After that? Sandlin probably couldn't have done much better. He was outstanding, retiring the next 18 batters he faced to earn his first career victory as the White Sox throttled the Twins, 15-2, on Wednesday at Rate Field.

Yesterday, I said Sandlin would probably go five innings or 75 pitches, whichever came first. Ha! Shows what I know.

The 25-year-old right-hander needed only 61 pitches to get through six innings. He struck out four, walked nobody and threw 41 of those 61 pitches for strikes. He got seven swing-and-misses, and his fastball topped out at 99 mph. When Sandlin walked off the mound after the top of the sixth, he left with a comfortable 9-1 lead.

There are few Sox debuts this successful. Even a cynical fan like me thought this performance was awesome.

The Sox offense had a great game, too, as they pummeled Minnesota pitching for 15 runs on 18 hits. They had two five-run innings, one in the fifth and one in the seventh.

The seventh inning featured back-to-back home runs by Chase Meidroth and Munetaka Murakami. For Meidroth, it was his fifth homer of the season and first career grand slam. For Murakami, the solo shot was his 20th homer of the season. That leads the American League, and it's the most home runs by a rookie before June in MLB history.

Murakami has homered in all three games of this Minnesota series. On Wednesday, he was 2 for 4 with three runs scored. There's really no question that his addition has completely changed the complexion of the Sox lineup.

Sam Antonacci went 3 for 4 with two runs scored and three RBIs, including a two-run single in the second inning that erased the early 1-0 Minnesota lead and put the Sox ahead to stay. Randal Grichuk was 3 for 5 with two RBIs.

Meidroth, Colson Montgomery and Tristan Peters also had two-hit games for the Sox, who improve to 28-27, maintain second place and stay 3.5 games back of the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central.

Game 4 of this series is Thursday afternoon, with the Sox hoping for a series win, and the Twins looking to salvage a split. 

White Sox call up David Sandlin; Noah Schultz hits the IL

The White Sox have called up right-handed pitching prospect David Sandlin, and he will make the start Wednesday against the Minnesota Twins at Rate Field.

Sandlin, 25, was acquired along with Jordan Hicks in an offseason trade with the Boston Red Sox. He dealt with a sore forearm in spring training, and he has been ramping up in the minor leagues after recovering from the early-season injury.

He has a 0.75 ERA across four outings with Triple-A Charlotte, the last of which lasted four innings. We should not expect Sandlin to pitch deep into the ballgame Wednesday night. It will probably be 75 pitches or five innings, whichever comes first.

Sandlin takes the roster spot of Noah Schultz, who has been placed on the injured list with right knee patella tendinitis. This is the same injury the 22-year-old lefty dealt with in 2025, when he was limited to 17 games and 73 innings.

Schultz has struggled as of late. He's 0-3 with a 9.87 ERA over his past four starts. Worse, he's walked 10 batters in 17.1 innings over that same span. Schultz had the reputation of a strike-thrower during his time in the minor leagues, so the mounting walks have been a head-scratcher.

Perhaps he was pitching at less than 100%, and if so, he shouldn't be pitching. We'll see if Sandlin, who has a high-90s fastball, can fill the gap in the short run.

Twins 5, White Sox 3 (11 innings)

Brooks Lee's 3-run double in the top of the 11th inning off Tyler Davis (2-2) allowed the Twins to take the second game of the four-game series Tuesday at Rate Field.

After getting ahead 0-2 in the count with two fastballs with the bases loaded and one out, Davis tried to trick Lee with splitter, and it did not work. 

The Sox were fortunate to get the game into extra innings. They managed only three hits off Minnesota starter Joe Ryan through the first seven innings. However, with the Twins leading 2-0, Rikuu Nishida singled to open the eighth inning, and one out later, Munetaka Murakami hit his 19th home run of the season to even the score at 2.

In the bottom of the 10th, the Sox had their chance. They had runners on first and third with one out for Murakami, but he hit a one-hopper right at Minnesota first baseman Josh Bell that resulted in an inning-ending double play.

That set the stage for Lee to deliver the decisive hit that made the score 5-2. In the bottom of the 11th, the Sox got their ghost runner home on an RBI single by Chase Meidroth, but that was as close as they could get.

The Sox are 27-27, 3.5 games back of the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central.

Rikuu Nishida debuts; White Sox beat Twins

Before the start of a four-game series against the Minnesota Twins, the White Sox on Monday promoted all-purpose player Rikuu Nishida from Triple-A Charlotte.

Nishida, 25, who was born in Japan and played college baseball at the University of Oregon, was selected by the Sox in the 11th round of the 2023 MLB draft.  

He began this season at Double-A Birmingham and quickly earned a promotion to Charlotte, where he was batting .347/.454/.395 with a home run, 10 RBIs and nine stolen bases in 33 games.

It was an eventful MLB debut for Nishida on Monday, as he batted ninth and played right field for the Sox in their 3-1 victory over the Twins.

He collected his first major league hit, going 1 for 3 with a single, and recorded seven putouts in the outfield. Perhaps most impressively, he provided the best defensive play of the game. Nishida threw Orlando Arcia out at the plate to end the top of the second inning, after Minnesota's Alex Jackson had singled to right field.

The play kept the score tied at 1 at the time and got Sox starter Anthony Kay (4-1) out of the only jam he was in all afternoon.

Speaking of Kay, has anyone noticed that he's been the second-best starter on the Sox lately? The left-hander is now 3-0 with a 1.98 ERA across five May starts after he tossed six innings of one-run ball against the Twins.

Brooks Lee homered in the first inning for Minnesota, but that was the only run the Twins could manage all day.

Meanwhile, the Sox hit two home runs in the first two innings off Minnesota starter Zebby Matthews (1-2), and that was the difference in the game.

Munetaka Murakami hit his team-leading 18th home run of the season in the first inning -- a solo shot that tied the game at 1. In the second inning, Tristan Peters worked a leadoff walk and scored when Drew Romo hit his fifth homer of the year. The two-run blast put the Sox ahead 3-1 and capped the scoring for the day early.

The Sox got scoreless innings of relief from Grant Taylor, Bryan Hudson and Seranthony Dominguez, with Dominguez earning his 11th save of the season.

The Sox are 27-26, 3.5 games back of the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central. 

Memorial Day 2026

Make it a safe and reflective one.

 

 

White Sox catcher Kyle Teel out another 3-6 weeks

White Sox catcher Kyle Teel will miss another three to six weeks after spraining the lateral collateral ligament is his right knee Saturday while playing in a rehab game with Triple-A Charlotte.

Teel has not played a game with the Sox yet this season after suffering a Grade 2 hamstring strain on March 10, during a game in which he was representing Italy in the World Baseball Classic.

Coming into the 2026 season, we expected catching to be a Sox strength, with both Teel and Edgar Quero coming off respectable rookie years in 2025.

Instead, it's been one of the weaker position groups. Sunday's performance notwithstanding, it's been a terrible start for Quero. Here's a look at what the Sox have gotten from their catchers heading into Monday's game against the Seattle Mariners:

• Quero: .176/.264/.220, 1 HR, 1 2B, 10 RBIs, 28 Ks, 9 BBs
• Drew Romo: .184/.340/.553, 4 HRs, 2 2Bs, 7 RBIs, 10 Ks, 8 BBs
• Reese McGuire: .172/.273/.172, 0 HR, 0 2B, 3 RBIs, 9 Ks, 2 BBs (given his release) 

At least Romo is hitting for power. It seems the coaching staff trusts him more than Quero at this point, because Romo was in the starting lineup Monday against the Mariners -- even after Quero walked off the Cubs on Sunday.

And rightfully so. Romo has outplayed Quero over the past few weeks. But this is still a lineup hole that could cause the Sox a problem until Teel returns -- if he returns.

We probably won't see him until July at this point.