Munetaka Murakami had three hits, scored three runs and smacked his 14th homer to back Davis Martin as the Chicago White Sox shut out the Los Angeles Angels 6-0 on Monday in Anaheim, Calif.
Miguel Vargas also homered to help the White Sox beat the Angels for the fourth time in eight days. Chicago has won six of its last seven to move one game below .500.
Andrew Benintendi had four hits and one RBI, Jarred Kelenic had three hits, and Vargas and Sam Antonacci each had two hits as the White Sox racked up 16 overall.
Martin (5-1) gave up five hits, struck out a career-high 10 and didn’t walk anybody over seven shutout innings in winning his third straight decision. He has allowed one or no runs in five of his past six starts.
Sean Newcomb struck out four in two perfect innings to complete the shutout.
Los Angeles’ Jose Soriano (5-2) served up two homers while being touched up by Chicago for the second straight outing. He had a microscopic 0.24 ERA over his first six starts before giving up eight runs and 14 hits over nine innings in the two starts, raising his ERA to 1.74.
Soriano permitted five runs and eight hits over four innings on Monday. He struck out five and walked three.
Nolan Schanuel and Travis d’Arnaud had two hits apiece for the Angels, who have lost 13 of their past 15 games.
Soriano walked Antonacci and Murakami to open the game before striking out the next two batters. Chase Meidroth then delivered a run-scoring single to center, and Benintendi followed with a ground single to center to make it 2-0.
In the fourth, Antonacci singled to left with one out and Murakami followed with a 429-foot blast to center to join to Yankees slugger Aaron Judge in a tie for the major league home run lead.
Three pitches later, Vargas jumped on Soriano’s fastball and homered to right-center to make it 5-0.
The White Sox added on in the eighth when Murakami, Vargas and Colson Montgomery hit consecutive two-out singles off Mitch Farris.
–Field Level Media
