The new Japanese star on pace for 58 homers

Plus: Can Yordan top Bagwell?

Monday, April 20 View Online Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know for today’s games, while catching you up on fun and interesting stories you might have missed. Today's edition is brought to you by David Adler.   He broke Sadaharu Oh's home run record in Japan. Now he's on pace for even more in the Majors.   Munetaka Murakami just keeps bashing homers. After three more over the weekend, Murakami is up to eight home runs already in his first MLB season -- tied for third-most in the Majors, behind only Yordan Alvarez and Aaron Judge.    If you thought Murakami's 56 home runs for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in 2022 were a lot (that's when he surpassed Oh's NPB mark for the most homers in a single season by a Japanese-born player) … well, Murakami is currently on a 58-homer pace for the White Sox.    Murakami's eight homers through his first 22 MLB games are twice as many as any other Japanese player has ever had -- Shohei Ohtani, Seiya Suzuki and Masataka Yoshida all hit four through their first 22 games in the big leagues.    Here are three things to know about Murakami's power surge.    1) He's hitting the ball really, really hard    Over 200 hitters have put at least 40 balls in play this season. Out of all those hitters, Murakami's 95.0 mph average exit velocity is tied for fourth-highest, behind only Oneil Cruz (97.5 mph), James Wood (96.2 mph) and Jac Caglianone (95.1 mph). But even more importantly, his barrel rate -- basically, how often he hits the ball both hard and in the air -- is also top-five in the Majors, putting Murakami in a group of star sluggers.    Highest barrel rate in 2026  Hitters with 40+ batted balls  Aaron Judge: 28.3% James Wood: 27.8% Shohei Ohtani: 26.3% Munetaka Murakami: 26.2% Mike Trout: 25.9% 2) He can hit velocity after all    One of the big questions about Murakami when he came to the Majors from Japan was whether he'd be able to hit the higher velocity from MLB pitchers. Well, he answered that question with one huge swing this weekend.    Murakami crushed a 114.1 mph, 431-foot grand slam over the batter's eye in dead center field against the A's in Sacramento. That monster grand slam came against a 98.2 mph fastball. So much for not being able to hit high velocity.   3) He looks a lot like Kyle Schwarber   Murakami is what we call a "Three True Outcomes" hitter -- those are home runs, walks and strikeouts, which have accounted for nearly two-thirds of Murakami's plate appearance results so far this season.    He's among the MLB leaders in all three categories: tied for third in home runs (eight), third in walks (20) and tied for eighth in strikeouts (31). The home runs and walks are great. The strikeouts, not so great.    But you know who has an offensive profile that looks a lot like Murakami's right now? That's right, Schwarber. And we all know how good Schwarber is.  GAMES OF THE NIGHT Here are three games to watch tonight. For info on how to watch every MLB game, go to MLB.com/Watch.   Astros at Guardians (6:10 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)   The Astros have lost four in a row and are in a surprising last place in the AL West. Can they bounce back against the Guardians, who lead the AL Central?    Phillies at Cubs (7:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)    The Cubs are on a heater right now, taking a five-game winning streak into tonight's series opener. The Phillies, not so much -- they're on a five-game losing streak. But these are still both 2025 playoff teams, and this should be a good series.    Blue Jays at Angels (9:38 p.m. ET, MLB Network/MLB.TV)    The Blue Jays haven't turned it on yet in 2026, but tonight they've got Dylan Cease, who's been pitching like an ace (1.74 ERA, 32 strikeouts in four starts) -- although he's still looking for his first win in a Toronto uniform.  AROUND THE LEAGUE THIS WEEKEND Here's a rundown of some of the big things that happened in baseball this weekend.    • Air Yordan    Alvarez looks as dangerous at the plate as he ever has. The Astros' star slugger has sole possession of the MLB lead with 10 home runs -- one ahead of Judge -- after homering in three straight games over the weekend, putting Alvarez on pace to smash the Astros' single-season home run record of 47 set by Jeff Bagwell in 2000.   • Mets losing streak reaches 11    The Mets have now lost 11 straight games after being swept by the Cubs this weekend, matching their longest losing streak since the 2004 season. The players are still "fighting for each other," and they have the back of manager Carlos Mendoza. But what does this losing streak mean for their 2026 playoff hopes?   • Judge and Rice, dynamic duo   Judge and Ben Rice both homered yesterday to help the Yankees sweep the Royals. They now have 17 home runs between them (nine for Judge and eight for Rice), the most for any pair of teammates in the Majors this season. Judge and Rice are also just the third Yankees duo to hit eight or more home runs each through the team's first 22 games of a season, along with Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle in 1956 and Judge and Anthony Rizzo in 2022.    • Sale outduels Sánchez, passes Glavine   In a marquee matchup of two of the top starting pitchers in baseball, Braves ace Chris Sale outdueled Phillies ace Cristopher Sánchez on Saturday while passing Atlanta franchise legend Tom Glavine on the all-time strikeouts list. Sale now has 2,608 K's in his career, and the Braves are on a five-game winning streak and in first place in the NL East.    • Skubal in Cy Young form    Back-to-back Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal had his first 10-strikeout game of the season to beat the Red Sox on Saturday. That's Skubal's 16th game with double-digit strikeouts since the start of his first Cy Young season in 2024 (including two in the playoffs), the most of any pitcher over that time. Boston's Garrett Crochet has 15.    • Wheeler could rejoin Phils next weekend With the Phillies in a bit of a rut, Zack Wheeler's return can't come soon enough. And Philly might get the All-Star right-hander back this coming weekend against the rival Braves. Wheeler just made his fifth rehab start at Double-A, and although his velocity was down a little and he gave up a home run to Yankees top prospect George Lombard Jr., Wheeler's next start could still be in the big leagues.  STREAK TRACKER There are two big streaks going around the Majors right now. We're keeping track of them here.    Mason Miller's scoreless innings streak Currently at: 32 2/3 innings    The Padres closer added another scoreless outing yesterday, and he's now just one inning shy of Cla Meredith's franchise-record scoreless streak set in 2006. The longest scoreless-inning streak in AL/NL history belongs to Orel Hershiser, who pitched 59 straight scoreless innings in 1988. But we've still never seen anything quite like Miller's streak. Since it started last August, he's struck out 69 of the 112 batters he's faced, including 27 of 38 this season (71%!).   Shohei Ohtani's on-base streak  Currently at: 51 games    Ohtani has reached base safely in 51 consecutive games going back to last season. Yesterday, the reigning NL MVP passed "Wee" Willie Keeler for sole possession of third place in Dodgers history. Next up for Ohtani on the Dodgers list would be Shawn Green (53 games in 2000), and Duke Snider after that (58 games in 1954). The AL/NL record belongs to Ted Williams, who reached base in 84 consecutive games in 1949. CHILD OF THE KORN A closer as intimidating as Mason Miller needs an entrance song to match. So this season, Miller has jogged out to Korn’s "Blind," which sets the tone nicely for his barrage of 102-mph four-seamers.   It turns out that Korn, which hails from a few hours up the coast in Bakersfield, Calif., clearly appreciates Miller’s choice of song.  The band even sent Miller some swag … plus an invitation to a concert. Bryan Horowitz has more here. © 2026 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. MLB trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com. Any other marks used herein are trademarks of their respective owners. Please review our Privacy Policy. You (geoffgould.gr8iphone@blogger.com) received this message because you registered to receive commercial email messages from MLB.com. Please add info@marketing.mlbemail.com to your address book to ensure our messages reach your inbox. 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