White Sox Crush Cubs 8-3 With 5 Homers as Murakami Belts 2 to Tie City Series

3 articles · Updated · Chicago Tribune · May 16

Munetaka Murakami hit his first two homers since May 8, driving in three runs as the White Sox beat the Cubs 8-3 before 38,795 at Rate Field and evened the City Series at 1-1.
Five Chicago White Sox home runs powered the rout—Miguel Vargas opened with a three-run shot, Colson Montgomery and Andrew Benintendi also went deep, and all 11 runs in the game scored on homers.
Davis Martin improved to 6-1 by allowing one run over six innings with seven strikeouts and no walks, while Cubs starter Jameson Taillon gave up all five homers and eight runs in 5-plus innings.
Murakami's 17th homer moved him atop the American League, and the White Sox returned to 23-22 behind a lineup that already had three players with at least 10 home runs entering the game.

Is Munetaka Murakami's historic power surge proving the rest of MLB wrong for overlooking him?

With nearly half their runs from homers, is the White Sox's explosive offense a sustainable model for a season-long turnaround?

As their starter's struggles continue, what is the Cubs' plan to fix the growing crisis in their pitching rotation?