The White Sox are 0-3. They got swept in Milwaukee. They were outscored 29-10. They blew a 7-2 lead on Sunday in one of the most painful losses you'll see all year. The pitching staff posted a 10.13 ERA for the series. The defense was sloppy. The baserunning was worse. All of that is true.
Here's what's also true: the young core that this entire rebuild is built around showed up in Milwaukee and hit the ball like they belonged. And if you're trying to figure out what matters more three games into a 162-game season — the final scores or the individual performances from the guys who are supposed to carry this franchise forward — the answer is the latter, and it's not close.
Murakami: Historic, and He's Just Getting Started
We wrote before Opening Day that everything about the 2026 season starts and ends with Munetaka Murakami. Three games in, he's already made that look like an understatement. The 26-year-old Japanese slugger homered in each of his first three career MLB games — a solo shot in the ninth inning of the Opening Day blowout, another solo blast on the very first pitch he saw in Game 2, and a third in the second inning of Sunday's heartbreaker. He's now the fourth player in modern MLB history to accomplish that feat, joining Trevor Story (2016), Kyle Lewis (2019), and Cleveland's Chase DeLauter, who hit the same milestone this same week.
The numbers through three games: 3-for-9 with 3 home runs, 3 RBI, 4 walks, and 4 runs scored across 13 plate appearances. He's batting .333 — and getting on base at nearly a .462 clip when you factor in the walks. Murakami isn't just swinging — he's taking pitches, drawing walks, making pitchers work. The concern coming in was always the strikeouts — he struck out between 21% and 30% of the time in Japan, and that rate was expected to climb against MLB velocity. He has struck out, sure. But the patience has been the real revelation. Pitchers are already afraid to give him something to drive, and when they do, he's not missing.
The most telling moment of the weekend wasn't any of the three homers. It was Murakami's response when asked about his historic start. Instead of celebrating, he insisted he has a long way to go - expressing his burning desire to keep improving. That's the mentality of a hitter who's going to keep getting better — a 26-year-old student of the game who knows the adjustment period is just beginning. The $34 million the White Sox spent in December is looking like a bargain three days in. Imagine what it looks like in three months.
Montgomery: The Franchise Bat Is Real
Colson Montgomery's opening weekend was a microcosm of where he is as a hitter — maddening lows followed by the kind of swing that makes you forget all of them. He struck out against Jacob Misiorowski's 101-mph heat in the Opening Day blowout. He was quiet in Game 2. Then Sunday happened.
Montgomery crushed a first-inning grand slam off Brandon Sproat — 405 feet to center field — that put the Sox up 4-0 and gave American Family Field its first real moment of silence all weekend. He added an RBI single in the second. By the third inning, the former first-round pick had 5 RBI and the Sox led 7-1, and for three glorious innings it looked like the kid who ripped 21 home runs in 71 games after his July 4 call-up last year was about to announce himself to the 2026 season.
The bullpen gave it all back, and that's not Montgomery's fault. His series line — 3-for-12, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 2 walks — is the production of a middle-of-the-order bat, which is exactly what the Sox need him to be. The Year 2 adjustment is real. Pitchers will come at him differently now that they've seen a full half-season of tape. Montgomery hit .182 in spring training and struck out 20 times in 55 at-bats. The Sun-Times' Daryl Van Schouwen wrote that Montgomery knows he has to keep "flipping the script" — adapting to how the league adjusts to him. Sunday's grand slam was the best possible answer to the early noise. He needs to keep answering.
Pereira: A Small Moment That Mattered
Everson Pereira's third-inning homer on Sunday — a 403-foot shot to center field — won't make any highlight reels outside of the White Sox universe. But it matters. Pereira came to the South Side from Tampa Bay in a November trade, out of minor league options, carrying a .146 career MLB batting average and a reputation as a power bat who couldn't translate his minor-league success to the big leagues. He dealt with side tightness in spring training that cost him valuable evaluation time. He barely made the roster.
That homer was his first hit as a White Sox player and only his third career MLB home run. It's one swing. It doesn't prove anything by itself. But for a 24-year-old who's been fighting for a chance to stick, showing the power that made him a prospect in the first place — against major-league pitching, in a game that mattered — is the kind of moment that can unlock a confidence level the stat line hasn't reflected yet. The Sox took a flier on Pereira because the upside was obvious and the cost was minimal. They need him to be more than a name on the roster. Sunday was a start.
Meidroth's Footnote
One more from the young core worth noting: Chase Meidroth led off the entire 2026 season — the very first plate appearance of the White Sox' year — with a solo homer off Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski. It was the first Opening Day leadoff homer in White Sox franchise history. The rest of his series was quiet (2-for-13), but that's a moment the 24-year-old second baseman will remember for the rest of his career. The Sox need him to be a table-setter in front of Montgomery and Murakami all year. The willingness to attack elite stuff in the first at-bat of the season is a good sign.
The Other Side of the Ledger
None of the above changes the fact that the pitching was atrocious. Shane Smith got hammered on Opening Day. Sean Burke lost his seventh consecutive road start. The bullpen posted a combined ERA north of 10.00 for the series, headlined by Chris Murphy's catastrophic eighth inning on Sunday — a third of an inning, 3 hits, 4 earned runs, and an ERA that technically reads 108.00. Seranthony Domínguez, signed this offseason specifically to close games, gave up the Christian Yelich three-run homer that completed the comeback and took the loss. The Sox allowed 29 runs in three games. You're not winning baseball games like that.
The IL is stacked, too. Drew Thorpe, Ky Bush, and Mike Vasil are all down. Kyle Teel's hamstring injury from the WBC has the everyday catching job in Edgar Quero's hands earlier than planned. The pitching depth that looked thin on paper in spring training looks even thinner after one weekend of real games.
But this is the nature of a rebuild. The position players develop faster than the arms. The bats show up before the pitching staff figures out how to hold a lead. Three years ago, this franchise won 41 games. Two years ago, 60. The trajectory is pointed in the right direction, even when the box scores don't cooperate. The question was never whether the White Sox would lose games in 2026 — it was whether the young players they're building around would look like legitimate building blocks when they did. After one weekend in Milwaukee, the answer to that question is yes.
Looking Ahead
The Sox open a three-game set tonight in Miami against the Marlins. Davis Martin gets the ball against Chris Paddack. Murakami's home run streak is still active — if he goes deep tonight, he'll tie Trevor Story's record of homering in each of his first four career games. But more importantly, the Sox need a clean outing from Martin and a bullpen that can hold a lead if the offense provides one. Sunday proved the bats can produce. Now the pitching staff has to meet them halfway.
It's 159 games to go. The young core is here. The rest will come — or it won't, and that'll tell its own story. But after a weekend that could've been nothing but misery, Montgomery, Murakami, and Pereira gave White Sox fans something they haven't had enough of in three years: real reasons to be excited about what's next.