By Salem Chicago News Staff
CHICAGO — September 26, 2026
Munetaka Murakami homered twice Friday night, powering the Chicago White Sox to a 6-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies before 35,778 fans at Rate Field.
The two blasts gave Murakami a team-high 35 home runs for the season and kept pressure on the Cleveland Guardians in the American League Central. The White Sox trail Cleveland by one game with two games remaining.
It was Murakami’s third career multi-home run game and the 11th multi-homer game by a White Sox player this season.
The White Sox put staff ace Sean Burke on the mound one day after clinching a playoff berth. Burke capped a breakout season by allowing one run over 5 1/3 innings, striking out seven and walking one. He finished the 2026 campaign with a 3.34 ERA and a career-high 185 strikeouts over 172 1/3 innings.
Rather than manage their rotation with an eye toward a potential Wild Card Series beginning Tuesday, the White Sox opted to keep their regular approach. Qualifying for the playoffs did not change the White Sox’s day-to-day singular focus.
The White Sox entered the final regular-season series trailing Cleveland by one game, but breaking even with the Guardians in the standings would be sufficient. Chicago owns the 7-6 season series tiebreaker.
The Guardians’ Friday night game in Kansas City was delayed by rain, meaning the White Sox temporarily could not gain ground in the standings.
Shortstop Colson Montgomery also set the MLB single-season high for strikeouts with his 224th of the year, an unwanted milestone that underscored his feast-or-famine approach at the plate.
The White Sox continue the series against Colorado on Saturday with Davis Martin on the mound. A sweep of the Rockies, combined with any Cleveland stumble at Kansas City, would give Chicago the AL Central title and a first-round bye.
