The Chicago White Sox faced the Baltimore Orioles at 2:10 p.m. CT on April 6 at Guaranteed Rate Field, with the game moved up because of cold conditions after the club dropped the series opener and slipped just shy of a.500 record. The White Sox also gave Munetaka Murakami his first day off of the season.
Murakami had played in all 10 games before sitting, and he had given the lineup a real spark with four home runs, seven walks and 19 total bases. Even after going hitless in his last two outings, he had still reached base with a walk in each of those games, a reminder of how quickly he had become one of the club’s most reliable hitters.
The White Sox needed that kind of production after managing only four hits in the opener. Grant Taylor opened that game with a scoreless first inning, and Erick Fedde held the Orioles to two earned runs over 6.0 innings, but Baltimore still won and pushed Chicago into a game that carried the feel of an early-season checkpoint.
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There was also a roster shuffle behind the scenes: Austin Hays went on the injured list with a hamstring strain, and Dustin Harris was called up from Triple-A to fill the spot. That left the White Sox trying to keep pace without one of their regular pieces while they chased the line that would bring them back to.500.
Murakami’s day off showed how thin the margin was. He had been one of only a handful of White Sox players to appear in every game to that point, but even a hot start could not prevent a reset when the schedule, the weather and the grind of the first 10 games all landed at once. Chicago’s next step was simple: stabilize the lineup, get the offense going and turn a near-.500 start into something more lasting.
