CHICAGO โ When we went dark for construction on April 7th, the White Sox were 4-6 and it felt like the usual story. Another rough start. Another long summer on the South Side. We wrote before the season that this roster had more talent than anything the South Side had fielded in years โ but a 4-6 record has a way of testing that conviction. It got worse before it got better โ the team bottomed out at 6-13 in mid-April โ but a lot has changed since then.
The Record: 23-22, and It Means Something
That's not a misprint. The White Sox are 23-22 after taking Game 2 of the Crosstown Classic from the Cubs on Saturday, and that record carries weight that goes beyond the standings. They went 13-13 in April โ their first non-losing month since June 2023. They reached .500 for the first time this late in a season since 2022. The White Sox didn't win their 20th game until June 5 last season, and June 18 the year before that when they lost a franchise-record 121 games. They got there this year on May 13th.
For the first time since 2008, excluding the COVID-shortened season, both Chicago baseball teams are entering a Crosstown Classic with winning records. That alone is worth stopping to appreciate.
Murakami: The Most Exciting White Sox Player in Years
We spent a lot of time before the season talking about what Munetaka Murakami could be โ and the questions were fair. Could he handle elite MLB velocity? Would the swing-and-miss be too much of a problem over a full season? Two months in, we have answers, and most of them are good.
Murakami has 17 home runs and 32 RBI on the season, slashing .236/.376 with a .943 OPS โ among the AL leaders in home runs. He is the fastest player in White Sox history to reach double-digit home runs in a season, and the fourth-fastest in MLB history. On Saturday night against the Cubs, he had his first multi-homer game as a White Sox โ hitting his 16th and 17th of the year in the 8-3 victory, joining Montgomery, Vargas, and Benintendi for five White Sox home runs in a single Crosstown Classic game. The South Side hasn't felt like this in a long time.
The full Murakami experience has also included some cold stretches. From April 5-12, he went hitless in most at-bats, posted a .043 average over that span, and struck out 10 times โ the kind of stretch that makes you wonder if the league has figured him out. Then he hit home runs in five straight games, tying the White Sox franchise record for consecutive games with a home run, and the questions quieted back down. He's a true three-true-outcomes hitter: he leads the AL in strikeouts and ranks fourth in walks. The power is undeniably real. The strikeouts will keep coming. As long as the home runs do too, Will Venable isn't losing sleep over it.
Colson Montgomery: The Sophomore Leap Is Real
Before the season, the biggest question on this roster was whether Colson Montgomery's second half in 2025 โ 21 home runs in 71 games after a July 4th call-up โ was a preview or a mirage. Six weeks into 2026, it looks like a preview. Montgomery has 12 home runs and 30 RBI on the season. His home run total is already the second-most by a White Sox player through 103 games in franchise history.
The defining moment of the White Sox's month came on May 13th, when Montgomery hit a go-ahead homer in the seventh inning to lift the Sox past the Royals 6-5, pushing them to 21-21 โ the first time Chicago's south side team had been at .500 this late in a season since 2022. "As a competitor, you want to see yourself at the top of the division," Montgomery said afterward. "In our minds, that's where we feel like we should be." That's not a rebuilding team's mentality. That's a team that believes.
Davis Martin: The Surprise Ace
Nobody had Davis Martin penciled in as the best pitcher on this staff heading into the season. That was supposed to be Shane Smith โ the 2025 All-Star who drew Opening Day honors before being sent down to Triple-A Charlotte after three rough outings. Martin quietly stepped into the void and has been one of the best starters in baseball. He went into the Crosstown Classic at 5-1 with a 1.62 ERA, second-best among qualified starters in all of MLB. Pitching coach Zach Bove, in his first year with the club, gets significant credit for keeping Martin sharp and confident through a crowded rotation. "It's just like, hey, what did we get away with? What could we have done better?" Martin said of their ongoing dialogue. On Saturday, Martin started Game 2 against the Cubs โ which means Erick Fedde, who won his first game of the season in that outing, has held down the rotation in the spots Martin couldn't fill.
Noah Schultz and a Rotation Built for the Future
The other pitching story of this stretch has been Noah Schultz โ the 6-foot-10 left-hander out of Oswego East High School, the White Sox's 2022 first-round pick, and the most anticipated pitching prospect to wear a Sox uniform in years. Schultz made his MLB debut on April 14th after posting a 1.29 ERA with 19 strikeouts across 14 Triple-A innings to open the year. The velocity is there, the slider is wipeout, and the command โ which derailed his 2025 season โ has taken a notable step forward.
Around Schultz, Fedde, and Martin, Bryan Hudson has been one of the quiet finds of the early season. Claimed off waivers from the Mets before the year, Hudson posted a 1.29 ERA with 18 strikeouts in 14 relief innings. And Seranthony Domรญnguez has been reliable at the back of the bullpen with 10 saves. This is a rotation and bullpen that was held together with duct tape after Mike Vasil's spring training UCL injury โ yet here they are, keeping the White Sox afloat well into May.
The Supporting Cast That Made It Happen
Sam Antonacci was called up April 15th and immediately provided a spark. He announced his arrival with one of the stranger home runs of the young season โ an inside-the-park shot after the ball struck a ball boy and bounced away from the Diamondbacks left fielder. Strange or not, it counted, and Antonacci has been a reliable presence in the lineup since. Miguel Vargas has added power at third base, including a home run in each game of the Crosstown Classic this weekend. The White Sox entered that series having hit 55 home runs on the season โ fourth-most in all of MLB. For a franchise that lost 121 games just two years ago, that's a remarkable number.
Crosstown Classic: White Sox Win Game 2
Friday night was a tough one. The Cubs came into Rate Field hot off snapping their four-game losing streak, and they showed it โ 14 hits, 10 runs, and a five-game White Sox winning streak ended in front of the first sellout crowd of the year at Rate Field. A crowd of 38,723 fans, and the Cubs made themselves at home on the South Side.
Saturday was different. Murakami's two-homer night set the tone, Vargas and Montgomery and Benintendi all went deep, and Erick Fedde gave the White Sox seven innings and his first win of 2026 in an 8-3 victory. The series is split. Game 3 is Sunday. After years of the Cubs dominating this rivalry, the White Sox are competitive again โ and that matters to everyone on this roster.
The Bottom Line
Nobody picked the White Sox to be over .500 in mid-May. FanGraphs had their playoff odds at 2.3% at the end of April. The projections haven't caught up to what this team is doing, and that's fine. The questions that mattered heading into 2026 โ can Murakami hit? Is Montgomery for real? Is there enough pitching? โ have all gotten at least partial, encouraging answers. The rebuild is ahead of schedule. The South Side has something to watch. And Lakefront Sports is back to cover it.