White Sox loving Munetaka Murakami’s home run bonanza, but striving for balance on offense

The White Sox completed their late rally in a midnight comeback win against the Angels on Monday the way they have racked up most of their runs early this season: with the long ball.

No one on the South Side will ever complain about a go-ahead, three-run home run from rookie sensation Munetaka Murakami, who entered play Tuesday with an MLB-high 12 home runs in his first month.

Nor will anyone turn up their nose at third baseman Miguel Vargas going back-to-back with Murakami for his sixth homer of the year for some needed insurance, just a week after they made it three in a row along with fellow infield slugger Colson Montgomery.

But to stay within a surprising three games of first place in the American League Central, the Sox will likely need to diversify an offense that has generated more than half its runs the long way early in the year, according to Baseball Prospectus. The Sox entered play with 35 home runs on the season, good for ninth in baseball, while their run total of 121 sat 21st.

Manager Will Venable said his squad is proving that when they’re executing, they can generate runs however they need to — and in modern baseball, that includes a healthy dose of dingers.

“The long ball is great, and we've certainly benefited. And when we hit home runs and multiple home runs, we probably are winning those games,” Venable said. “At the same time, there's been a lot of other things that these guys are doing well, specifically at the bottom of the order, with the situational hitting, the bunting, being aggressive on the bases. And for us as an offense, that's what it's going to take.”

The situational hits were lacking in the Sox’ weekend series against the Nationals, scoring nine runs in three games that included two extra-inning losses, underscoring the hot-and-cold nature of their bats after exploding for 22 in Arizona to close out a high-octane West Coast road trip.

Their 25 home runs from April 12-27 were third-most in baseball, thanks in no small part to Murakami’s five-game home run streak that has him accounting for a third of the team’s total. His .965 OPS has also buoyed a team offense of .692 that ranked 21st in MLB.

“We do need the slug. Everyone needs that slug. At the same time, you've got to find production throughout your order and throughout your lineup, and find different ways to get guys on base and score,” said Venable, who’s also had the Sox thinking small. Their 24 bunt attempts were the most in baseball as of Tuesday.

“We’re gonna have to use that tool. We’re gonna value that tool, just as anything else,” Sox hitting coach Derek Shomon said over the weekend. “We absolutely have to practice that, and the guys have done that.”

Shomon called it a “multifaceted offense when this thing’s firing off on all cylinders.”

“We have guys that can slug, we have guys that can move the baseball forward, we have guys that can and will lay down a bunt. That’s cool, it’s not just a one-trick pony, even though some nights it feels like it is. When it is firing off, there’s a lot of different solutions to score runs,” he said.

Second baseman Chase Meidroth, who clubbed a leadoff home run for the Sox on Opening Day and has dropped four bunts since then, tipped his cap to the heart-of-the-order power from Murakami, Vargas and Montgomery, who has seven homers.

“There’s a lot of ways to win a baseball game. Whether it’s small ball or the long ball, stringing together good at-bats, there are a lot of different ways to win a baseball game,” Meidroth said. “Those three guys have done a great job of hitting the long ball. As much as we can get those guys up with runners in scoring position, it’s what we are going to do right now.”