While one Chicago White Sox rookie, Munetaka Murakami, is busting down the door, another rookie, Sam Antonacci, is happy to get his foot in the door.
Could both be cornerstones for the future to turn this franchise around? That is yet to be determined.
Since being called up on April 15, Antonacci, a 23-year-old left fielder, is making a case to stay in the big leagues for a while.
“Once you put your foot in the door you want to establish yourself as someone who wants to be here for a long time,” he said.
Antonacci hit a sacrifice fly to left field to bring home Miguel Vargas in the eighth inning with what turned out to be the winning run in a 5-4 victory over the Washington Nationals on Friday night in front of a Rate Field crowd of 17,588. It was their fifth win in seven games.
“I just wanted to get a ball and hit it up the middle or in the air to try to get that guy from third home,” Antonacci said. “It worked out perfect.”
Antonacci also scored a run in the seventh, doubled, walked and was hit by a pitch for the Sox (11-15). Since his call-up, he has provided a spark for the team as he singled in his first major-league at-bat and hit an inside-the-park home run Tuesday against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix.
“When you think about what you want in our identity as a club — the way he is flying around the bases and playing hard and sticking his nose in there at the plate — that’s really a guy who is setting the tone for us,” White Sox manager Will Venable said of Antonacci. “As a young guy, he is someone we can all look up to.”
That other rookie? He just keeps hitting home runs and tying or setting records.
Murakami, a left-handed hitting first baseman from Japan, hit his 11th home run of the season in the fourth inning to tie the Houston Astros’ Yordan Alvarez for the major-league lead.
The 11 home runs in March/April ties Paul Kornerko for the most by a White Sox player in those months. Konerko hit 11 in 2010.
It also was Murakami’s sixth home run in seven games, but that’s not even the hottest streak in the 26-year-old’s career.
“I once hit five home runs in five at-bats in Japan,” Murakami said through an interpreter.
That came in 2022 across two games for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows en route to a 56-home run season.
The Nationals (11-16) also have a young slugger in James Wood, who entered Friday with 10 home runs. He was at the plate with a runner on third and two outs in the top of the ninth, and there was a school of thought to walk him.
Venable didn’t go to that school.
He allowed closer Seranthony Domínguez to pitch to the slugger, and Domínguez struck him out swinging on a full count for his sixth save.
“Before that inning, we talked about that situation and you don’t want to put the go-ahead run on base there,” Venable said. “As scary as Wood is, we’ve got our guy there in Seranthony, and I trust him to get the job done and he did a great job of executing.”
Jordan Leasure (2-0) picked up the win in relief. Erick Fedde came into the game in the second inning after opener Bryan Hudson pitched a scoreless first. Fedde, who came up with the Nationals and played with them from 2017-22, gave up three runs, one earned, on three hits in 5 2/3 innings.
Injury report
A couple of good workouts this weekend could mean catcher Kyle Teel will be ready for a rehab assignment next week.
Teel, who suffered a right hamstring strain March 10 playing for Italy in the World Baseball Classic, is being treated with caution, White Sox general manager Chris Getz said.
The next two days will be telling.
“Teel is still doing well, but we haven’t been able to get it to the finish line,” Getz said. “There is always this final stage and threshold that needs to be met before we send him on a rehab.
“We want to be very careful when it comes to Kyle Teel and certainly be careful with a hamstring. I know he had a good day yesterday and he feels good today.”
Meanwhile, outfielder Austin Hays, who also is nursing a hamstring injury, is ready for a rehab assignment starting Saturday at Triple-A Charlotte. Hayes hit .219 with six RBIs in nine games before he suffered the injury April 7.
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.
