White Sox hit 4 homers to cruise past the Rays 6-1

By: The Associated Press Posted: 8:46 PM CDT Friday, Jul. 31, 2026

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Miguel Vargas, Andrew Benintendi, Munetaka Murakami and Colson Montgomery homered and the Chicago White Sox beat the American League-leading Tampa Bay Rays 6-1 on Friday night.

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Vargas, Murakami and Montgomery have all homered in the same game five times this season, becoming the first trio to accomplish that feat since Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager and Joc Pederson for the Dodgers in 2019.

Vargas opened the scoring in the first inning with the longest home run of his career at 433 feet, and Benintendi made it 2-0 in the second.

Chicago White Sox's Colson Montgomery celebrates after his home run during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Friday, July 31, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)

Murakami tied Kazuma Okamoto for the Japanese rookie home run record with his 24th in the third, and Montgomery gave the AL Central-leading White Sox a 6-1 lead in the sixth with a two-run shot over the Tropicana Field wall.

Murakami has the 24 home runs and a .381 on-base-percentage in 74 career games. The only player in MLB history to reach those marks or better through that same stretch is Yordan Alvarez.

Erick Fedde (6-6) threw five innings, striking out six and giving up one run on four hits for Chicago. Alex Cook and Chris Roycroft gave up one hit combined in the final three innings.

Junior Caminero plated the Rays’ only run in the fourth with his team-leading 30th homer. He is the first Rays hitter with back-to-back 30-homer seasons since Carlos Peña from 2007-09.

Nick Martinez (10-3) surrendered all six runs in six innings. Prior to tonight, Martinez had given up more than three runs in a game just once this season. He also allowed four homers for the first time in his career.

Up next

Rays RHP Drew Rasmussen (9-5, 3.07 ERA) was set to face White Sox LHP Noah Schultz (3-7, 6.15) on Saturday.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb