HOUSTON — The last time the White Sox were in Houston, things took a turn for the worse.
“Not sure we were quite clicking on all cylinders,” said manager Will Venable. “They just beat us because they're a good team, and they played better than us.”
The Sox dropped three of four to the Astros to not only start the month of September, but to open a skid of 12 losses in 17 games that cost them the American League Central Division. Looking back on it , Sox players vary between hopeful to adamant that those results said more about where they were as a team, than how they match up against a middling, but battled-tested Astros team.
“We were in kind of a tough spot,” said outfielder Tristan Peters. “We don't really think about that series. And it doesn't matter who the opponent is, we're going to play our best baseball this postseason.”
All-Star first baseman Munetaka Murakami doesn’t like to dwell too much on that series either, but his 1-for-14, eight-strikeout showing at Daikin Park earlier this month was an inflection point. He spoke at the end of the series and admitted the attack angle of his swing had grown into too extreme of an uppercut, leading to more whiffs and lazy fly outs.
Things got worse before they got better. Murakami followed up the Astros series with a 4-for-40, 24-strikeout stretch that ran through the end of the Sox losing two of three in Cleveland in September, but the work to recalibrate was already underway.
“We showed him some information from when he was at his best, kind of an objective feedback presentation, and he took well to it,” hitting coach Derek Shomon told the Sun-Times of his message to Murakami. “This is what it looked like in the setup through the initial move, through the forward move, through contact, and this is what's gotten you away from it. Now take it and run with it.”
Murakami alluded to a correlated enhancement of his pre-existing leg strengthening routine that had his leg base feeling more stable in the batter’s box. After he hit .263/.378/.684 with four homers in his last 10 regular season games, Shomon believes Murakami is pretty close to full power, which is essential for the White Sox.
Miguel Vargas has been the club’s best player all year long. Chase Meidroth, recently battling a sore hamstring, has been the second-most valuable if you believe in advanced metrics and/or the power of sheer grit. But in the playoffs where teams are even more aggressive about bullpen deployment to stamp out potential rallies, game-changing home run power is more valuable than ever. And Murakami in full working order has the sort of pop that makes gawkers out of his fellow Sox hitters with over 30 homers.
“I hit behind him,” said Vargas. “When you see that ball coming off the bat from behind the plate, it’s unbelievable.”
“A lot of guys, [their homers] have to be pull-side, up in the air,” said shortstop Colson Montgomery. “We’ve seen a couple of them this year where it’s down-and-away fastballs and he just flicks them out to left field.”
While Montgomery has sputtered down the stretch and fallen down the batting order, and Vargas has become a steadying force that the coaching staff rarely worries about, Murakami is still a uniquely domineering presence in the White Sox lineup. And with a righty-heavy Astros pitching staff outside of All-Star closer Josh Hader, Murakami is the sort of fearsome matchup Houston has little answer for if he’s right.
The last week of the season would suggest he is nearing such territory, but the Sox first baseman argues he’s entering new territory altogether.
“They've been talking about that, but it's a new start,” Murakami said via interpreter of his recent work with Sox hitting coaches. “It's a start for a new beginning again. A big, long postseason run.”
