Detroit Tigers at Chicago White Sox

CHICAGO – It would have been easy for White Sox first baseman Munetaka Murakami to celebrate a strong individual night during his team’s 3-1 victory over the Tigers Thursday night at Rate Field. Murakami, who was an American League All-Star as a rookie, entered the evening in a 5-for-52 funk with two homers and six RBIs in September and was 20-for-154 since the start of August with 77 total strikeouts. Those numbers changed with one swing of the bat in the first inning against Framber Valdez, launching a Statcast-projected 423-foot drive to center, scoring Chase Meidroth and Randal Grichuk ahead of him. There was an eighth-inning triple for Murakami, marking the first of his career, and he was also part of a great defensive play to end the top of the eighth. But individual glory is not Murakami’s story. “I have responsibilities to be that player. I’m being paid by the team and to be accountable for what I do, even if I strike out, or I hit. It doesn’t really matter,” said Murakami through interpreter Kenzo Yagi. “I’m responsible for who I am, to be a baseball player and go out every single day to get the best results to help the team win. “Winning is all that matters at the moment right now. Giving 100 percent every single day is what I need to do.”