{"id":791746,"date":"2026-07-10T01:15:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T01:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/791746\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T01:15:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T01:15:15","slug":"munetaka-murakami-set-for-chicago-white-sox-return-friday-after-being-sidelined-by-hamstring-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/791746\/","title":{"rendered":"Munetaka Murakami set for Chicago White Sox return Friday after being sidelined by hamstring injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 Munetaka Murakami<\/a> is expected to return to the slumping Chicago White Sox<\/a> on Friday night after being sidelined by a strained right hamstring.<\/p>\n

Murakami made two rehab appearances with Triple-A Charlotte, going 2 for 7 with a double. Following Chicago\u2019s 2-1 loss to Boston on Thursday, White Sox manager Will Venable said Murakami would be in the starting lineup for the opener of the team\u2019s weekend series against the Athletics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s ready to go,\u201d Venable said. \u201cHe was challenged running the bases, defensively, had a really long game yesterday. So feel good about the workload, recovered well today so he\u2019s ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murakami got hurt during a 4-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers<\/a> on May 29, grabbing his right hamstring after beating a throw to first on a fielder\u2019s choice in the third inning. At the time of the injury, the Japanese rookie ranked among the major league leaders with 20 homers, 41 RBIs, 43 runs and a .947 OPS.<\/p>\n

Chicago (47-45) is in a virtual tie with Cleveland (48-46) for the lead in the sluggish AL Central. But the White Sox have dropped three in a row and six of eight overall. They managed just two runs and 15 hits in the three-game set against the Red Sox.<\/p>\n

White Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi<\/a> said getting Murakami back right now is huge.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, he\u2019s a presence in the lineup,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019ll bring the energy, I think. It seems like the vibe in here is kind of down right now but I\u2019m sure seeing him tomorrow will spark it back up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old Murakami signed a $34 million, two-year contract with Chicago in December. The White Sox went 17-18 while he was on the injured list.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand the impact he makes on the field and in the clubhouse so to activate him is going to mean a lot for our group,\u201d Venable said. \u201cReally excited about him.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/p>\n

Jay Cohen, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 Munetaka Murakami is expected to return to the slumping Chicago White Sox on Friday night…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-791746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}