ST. PETERSBURG, Florida - Chicago White Sox rookie Munetaka Murakami hit his 24th home run on Friday as Shohei Ohtani also reached the same number for the season with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Murakami got his fourth homer in six games as the White Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays 6-1, connecting on a 3-1 changeup from Nick Martinez (10-3) in the third inning at Tropicana Field as a two-run shot to left center gave his team a 4-0 lead.
It was a repeat of the Tokyo Olympics final from 2021 when Murakami hit a similar solo shot to the opposite field for Japan in the third inning off the same pitch from Martinez of the United States, helping the host nation to a 2-0 win and its first Olympic gold medal in the sport.
"I knew to an extent what kind of pitch he'd throw. I had an image," Murakami said of Martinez, who played for the Nippon Ham Fighters and the SoftBank Hawks in Japan from 2018 to 2021. "I was able to give it a good swing. I managed to react well."
A single in the sixth meant Murakami finished the day 2-for-4 as the Kumamoto Prefecture native stretched his hitting streak to eight games.
Ohtani also hit a two-run homer, joining compatriots Murakami and Toronto Blue Jays rookie Kazuma Okamoto with 24 homers, as the Dodgers lost 9-4 against the Boston Red Sox.
Having missed a game with left knee pain, Ohtani hit a double in the fourth before giving the Dodgers a 4-3 lead in the fifth when he pulled a 2-1 changeup off Jovani Moran. The two-way star went 2-for-5, as did Masataka Yoshida for the Red Sox.
Tomoyuki Sugano (11-4) got another win after holding the Kansas City Royals to a run over 6-2/3 innings on five hits as the Colorado Rockies prevailed 3-1.
Kodai Senga (0-8), starting for the first time since June 23, was tagged with the loss after giving up three runs on two hits in the New York Mets' 5-2 defeat by the Miami Marlins.
Yuki Matsui (2-1) earned the win after hurling three shutout innings of relief on one hit in the San Diego Padres' 7-0 win over the San Francisco Giants.
