'Mune-ball': White Sox’ offense firing on all cylinders with Murakami at the wheel

PHOENIX — Welcome to the ‘‘Mune-ball’’ era for the White Sox.

They’re scrimping with an $82 million payroll, the third-lowest in Major League Baseball. They’re running out a slew of rookies and reclamation projects — some of them learning new positions — to get their bats in the lineup. And they’re hitting the snot out of the ball, at least in the last week.

While general manager Chris Getz’s rebuilding team might not be on a trajectory for a data-driven, Hollywood-written playoff run, a la Billy Beane’s ‘‘Moneyball’’-era Athletics, Getz’s first splashy free-agent splurge has super-charged an offense that finally is making Sox games fun to watch again.

‘‘We’re very much connecting from top to bottom in the lineup, and I think it’s just really important that we really continue as a team to get good results,’’ Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami said through an interpreter after hitting a home run for the fourth consecutive game of the Sox’ West Coast trip Tuesday against the Diamondbacks.

Murakami’s two-year, $34 million contract has looked like a bigger bargain with every foot of his blasts. Entering play Wednesday, his last four homers collectively had traveled a third of a mile. And that was before he made it five games in a row with a homer with a two-run blast in the seventh inning. His 10 homers are one behind MLB leader Yordan Alvarez.

‘‘I’m really analyzing the pitchers as much as possible so that I’m getting ready into the at-bats,’’ said Murakami, who regularly admires his towering shots out of the box but is quick to share credit with his teammates. ‘‘So I’ll just try to keep doing whatever I’m doing right now.’’

Colson Montgomery, Miguel Vargas and other offensive cogs also would do well to keep doing what they’ve done against the A’s and Diamondbacks. Murakami, Vargas and Montgomery launched the Sox’ first back-to-back-to-back blasts in six years Tuesday. Vargas and Montgomery homered again Wednesday, as well.

It all has helped the Sox jump from MLB’s worst team OPS entering their trip to 17th (.702) and shake off mid-April vibes that scarcely could have been worse after getting swept at home by the Rays. Their .985 OPS and 17 homers over their last seven games are both tops in the majors.

Murakami’s the one getting the international spotlight, but ‘‘I think it’s just anyone,’’ Montgomery said. ‘‘Everything’s contagious. Hits are contagious. Good energy is contagious. And I think that’s what we’re doing right now.

‘‘It’s just settling in. A lot of us, we’re younger guys and we haven’t really played in April, kicked off the season, stuff like that. Everyone is playing free, easy and just committed to their plan.’’

After the batting order hit a drought during the first couple weeks of the season, manager Will Venable said it is enjoying a ‘‘good regression to that mean, where we’re able to get actual results.’’

‘‘You’ve gotta slug in this league,’’ Venable said. ‘‘No matter when it is in the count, you’ve got to take your shot. I think we do have a number of guys [who] can leave the ballpark and slug. And so those are the guys that you’ve got to have take some shots.

‘‘We have a number of guys that maybe that’s not part of their game, and those are the guys that really need to be grinding at-bats, having that Plan B swing, shooting the ball the other way and really extending the starting pitcher and working at-bats.

‘‘I think that’s a good thing about our offense: We have a bunch of different guys that can make an impact in different ways. We’ve just got to string it all together.’’

The Sox’ power surge has left only two questions: How long can they keep it up? And when will they come up with a regular home-run celebration in the dugout?

‘‘We’re working on it right now; we have something in mind that’s coming,’’ Montgomery teased. ‘‘We don’t really want to tell anyone yet, but you’ll notice it.’’