White Sox<\/a> said farewell to Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami, who made an endearing first impression at his first major-league camp before leaving for Tokyo on Friday to play in the World Baseball Classic. The Sox might not see him again till the last days of spring training, depending on how the defending champions fare in the WBC.<\/p>\nMurakami was slated to play first base in a Cactus League game against the Dodgers on Thursday before leaving to join teammates in advance of their March 6 WBC opener against Chinese Taipei, but he was scratched in the morning because of general soreness in what the Sox said was a \u201cprecautionary\u201d move.<\/p>\n
\u201dHe was a full participant in our camp just ahead of a long flight [Friday] morning,\u201d manager Will Venable said. \u201cI thought it was in his best interest not to play today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murakami, who signed a two-year, $34 million deal in December, agreed. He took on a heavier workload than most Sox teammates in preparation for the WBC. Fatigue was setting in, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was ramping up at a very high speed,\u201d he said Thursday, citing a tight schedule and daily work.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was aggressive,\u201d Venable said. \u201cIt\u2019s really important we don\u2019t ask him to do too much here.\u201d<\/p>\n
In four Cactus League games, Murakami was 5-for-13 with two doubles and five strikeouts.<\/p>\n
There were no long balls in Arizona\u2019s thin air for Murakami, who walloped 246 home runs in eight seasons in Japan, including 56 in 2022. He could get a hero\u2019s welcome in his homeland. In the last WBC in 2023, Murakami swatted a walk-off double against Mexico in the semifinals and a home run against the United States in the championship game in Miami.<\/p>\n
He wants another title.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to go into every single game to win it, and that\u2019s my fullest goal,\u201d Murakami said. \u201cGo into the batter\u2019s box with every intention of winning it every single game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Venable said he\u2019ll root for his new player, \u201ceven when he\u2019s playing Team USA. Maybe not Team Japan as much. Just excited to see him do his thing and be tuned in.\u201d<\/p>\n
As first impressions go, Murakami hit one out of the park.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust loved the person,\u201d Venable said. \u201cHis ability to be part of the group, this young group, his personality has been amazing. What really stuck out is we asked him to do things in his training and preparation that are different than what he\u2019s done in the past. For someone [who has such conviction] in his preparation and who takes it so seriously, to be that adjustable has been cool to see. Excited about getting him back in the White Sox uniform again with the season starting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shortstop Colson Montgomery said Murakami\u2019s English improved just in recent weeks. He has enjoyed random chats about non-baseball things.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had good conversations without his translator, and that shows a lot about him, that he\u2019s willing to learn English a lot for the betterment of the team, for us being able to communicate with him, too,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cHe\u2019s teaching us some words. He\u2019s good. He\u2019s a great addition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dodgers 7, Sox 6<\/p>\n
Left-hander Sean Newcomb, who signed a one-year, $4.5 million free-agent deal, started and allowed two runs and four hits in two innings. He\u2019s being stretched out as a starter but could pitch in a variety of relief roles, as well. Newcomb struck out two, including former Cub Kyle Tucker to end the second.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Second-year catcher Kyle Teel made an impression. \u201cHe\u2019s a real competitor back there; you can see it in his eyes,\u201d Newcomb said. \u201cHe\u2019s got bull horns kind of coming at you. He came out with the third hitter. I expected a how-you-feeling type of thing, and he was like, \u2018Get in your legs! Let\u2019s go!\u2019 That kind of fired me up. Looking forward to working with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Shortstop Tanner Murray, trying to win a job in a utility role, hit his second home run in four games.<\/p>\n
\u2022 On deck: Rangers at Sox, 2:05 p.m. Friday, Glendale, 1000-AM, MacKenzie Gore vs. Erick Fedde. Sox at Brewers, 2:10 p.m. Friday, Phoenix, Sean Burke vs. Brandon Sproat.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nSay what you want about the value of intangibles and things that leaders voice in clubhouses, nothing beats a good example like launching a baseball over the fence, as Montgomery did 21 times last season.<\/p>\n
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Froemming called a record 11 major-league no-hitters over his 37 season career.<\/p>\n
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If you\u2019re the Sox, the triple-digit losers of 2023, \u201824 and \u201825, there\u2019s no harm in being attached to a kinda-cute 4-2 record.<\/p>\n
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The Sox are projecting the 2021 fifth-round pick to land a spot in a near-future rotation, which wasn\u2019t the case after he went 0-11 with a 6.04 ERA between two levels of Class A in 2024.<\/p>\n
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read<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GLENDALE, Ariz. \u2014 Mune, we were just getting to know ye. After 19 intense days in Arizona, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-492797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}