Munetaka Murakami blasted his league-leading 13th homer Friday night and rookie starter Noah Schultz allowed just two hits in six shutout innings as the visiting Chicago White Sox routed the San Diego Padres 8-2.
Murakami capped a six-run second inning outburst against German Marquez, ripping a hanging knuckle-curve an estimated 413 feet to right-center field with Tristan Peters and Drew Romo aboard.
That essentially decided the game as Schultz (2-1) shrugged off first-inning control issues over the next five innings. The 6-foot-10, 240-pound left-hander struck out two and threw 53 of his 87 pitches for strikes.
Marquez (3-2) saw his three-game winning streak snapped after permitting seven runs on five hits and five walks over five innings, striking out two. It was the third straight defeat for San Diego, all at home, where it won nine of 10 before Tuesday night’s 8-3 loss to the Chicago Cubs.
Schultz created trouble in the first when he issued walks to Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts to fill the bases with two outs. But Schultz escaped trouble via Ty France’s inning-ending grounder to second.
Marquez couldn’t hide from trouble in the second. Colson Montgomery walked and advanced to third on Chase Meidroth’s double. Sam Antonacci cashed in Montgomery with a single and Austin Hays’ fielder’s choice grounder plated Meidroth.
Walks to Peters and Romo preceded Andrew Benintendi’s sacrifice fly that scored Hays prior to Murakami’s blast.
Montgomery upped the lead to 7-0 in the fifth when he pulled a hanging changeup an estimated 385 feet to right-center, his ninth homer of the year. Peters capped the White Sox’s scoring in the eighth with a two-out RBI single that scored Antonacci.
The Padres managed to avert a shutout with a pair of two-out runs in their half of the eighth. Miguel Andujar chopped an infield single up the middle to score Bryce Johnson, followed by Machado’s single to left that plated Tatis.
Antonacci bagged two of Chicago’s eight hits, while Tatis collected three of San Diego’s six hits.
