The Chicago White Sox continued their surprisingly competitive season with a comeback win over the Detroit Tigers at Rate Field on Friday night, winning 4-3 in 10 innings.
Rookie Rikuu Nishida squeeze-bunted in the tying run in the ninth inning thanks to a throwing error from first baseman Spencer Torkelson. One inning later, Miguel Vargas hit a walk-off home run.
"First in my career, in my life," Vargas said about the walk-off homer via MLB.com. "... I tried to drive in the runner and put the team in position to where we can win the game. I got lucky. I got the right pitch and put a good swing on it, and we got good results."
It was not all good news for Chicago. Star slugger Munetaka Murakami exited the game with what the White Sox called right hamstring tightness after running hard to beat out a double play ball in the third inning. Manager Will Venable announced Saturday that Murakami has a Grade 2 hamstring strain and will miss 4-6 weeks. He has been placed on the 10-day injured list.
"Looks like a little hamstring strain on the initial evaluation," Venable said after Friday's game via MLB.com. "He'll get some imaging tomorrow, but probably a couple weeks. Nothing official, got to continue the evaluation, but it might be a couple weeks."
Murakami went 0 for 2 in Friday's game and is hitting .240/.378/.560 with an AL-leading 20 home runs this season. Only Kyle Schwarber (22) has gone deep more times. Murakami has 20 homers in 246 plate appearances.
The White Sox summoned infield prospect Jacob Gonzalez to replace Murakami. Gonzalez, the No. 15 pick in the 2023 draft, is hitting .317/.419/.668 with 19 home runs in 52 Triple-A games this year. Baseball America ranked him as the No. 23 prospect in Chicago's system.
Friday's win improved the White Sox to 30-27. They sit in the second AL wild card spot with a three-game lead on a postseason berth, three games behind the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central.
Chicago signed Murakami, 26, to a two-year, $34 million contract in December. He hit .270/.394/.550 with 265 home runs in parts of eight seasons with the Yakult Swallows in Japan, including 56 homers in 2022.