CLEVELAND — Munetaka Murakami hit a rocket to right field.
The Chicago White Sox first baseman took a couple of seconds to admire the blast, then tossed the bat and turned to his teammates in the dugout, yelling in excitement.
“I can’t really explain it in words right now,” Murakami said through an interpreter when asked what was said. “But it was something a little bit dirty.”
Murakami’s two-run home run in the fourth inning lifted the Sox to a 3-0 victory against the Cleveland Guardians in Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Saturday in front of a sellout crowd of 34,287 at Progressive Field.
Photos: Chicago White Sox beat Cleveland Guardians 3-0 in Game 1 of ALDS
“That’s what playoff baseball is about is your big dogs going out there and making big plays, and obviously Mune is the guy in the middle of the lineup that’s been doing it all year for us,” manager Will Venable said. “Long ball is part of our game, specifically with Mune.
“A huge swing right there, especially after we had just gotten out of a tough jam there (in the third inning). So really well-timed homer. We needed it. And Mune has been our guy all year. So nice to see it.”
Colson Montgomery added an RBI double in the seventh inning, and the Sox held on to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series. Game 2 is at 4 p.m. Monday at Progressive Field (TBS, truTV and HBO Max).
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Five Sox pitchers combined to shut down the Guardians, ending with four spectacular innings from Grant Taylor. The Sox limited the Guardians to three hits.
“You go out and you have a rough plan and then the players have to go out and execute, and we were able to do that today,” Venable said. “It never goes exactly how you want it to go because that’s baseball, and the Guardians are a good team and going to put the ball in play. They’re going to take their walks and they have a dynamic offense.
“So really important that you have guys pick each other up in these situations, which we saw today.”
The Sox started with lefty Hagen Smith, who struck out four while retiring the first eight batters he faced. With two outs in the third, he walked Brayan Rocchio. Steven Kwan then drew a four-pitch walk. José Ramírez worked a full count before walking to load the bases for Chase DeLauter.
The Sox brought in Bryan Hudson. The count went full before Hudson got DeLauter to line out to left fielder Randal Grichuk to end the threat and keep the game scoreless.
It didn’t remain that way much longer.
Miguel Vargas led off fourth for the Sox with a single to left field. Murakami then hit a first-pitch sinker 440 feet for the two-run blast against Guardians starter Parker Messick, giving the Sox a 2-0 lead.
“I had a lot of matchups during the regular season,” Murakami said. “So in the first at-bat (in the first), I had a very clean hit (for a single). So I was very comfortable going to that at-bat, and that was pretty much the approach, and I swung really clean.”
The Guardians attempted a comeback in the bottom of the fourth. Nathaniel Lowe walked with two outs. Anthony Kay replaced reliever Jordan Hicks and surrendered a double to Travis Bazzana — Cleveland’s first hit.
Austin Hedges walked, loading the bases for Brayan Rocchio. The shortstop had big hits against the Sox during the regular season, including a walk-off two-run home run on July 2. Kay got him to line out to right fielder Braden Montgomery to end the inning.
The Sox looked to add to the lead when the first two batters reached in the sixth. Reliever Erik Sabrowski struck out Murakami. Tommy Pham then hit a long fly to left field. Angel Martínez made a remarkable leaping catch. Vargas was out trying to get back to first base for an inning-ending double play.
Aggressive baserunning aided the Sox in the seventh.
Colson Montgomery hit a bouncer with an exit velocity of 64 mph down the third-base line. Kyle Teel raced from first and was waved around at third. He scored as the ball got away from the catcher Hedges, stretching the Sox lead to 3-0.
“As I was rounding second, I kept reading the ball just kept running away from (the third baseman) Ramirez,” Teel said. “I saw the go sign from (third-base coach Justin Jirschele), I was just running hard, slid into home and saw the ball was dropped. I was dead at arrival, but just trying to go feetfirst, don’t try to do anything special, good things happen.”
Venable added on the sequence: “(Jirschele) always says, ‘Scared money don’t make money,’ and that’s kind of his mindset. He’s going to be aggressive with his sends, which is something that in the case like today when it’s a low run-scoring environment, we really needed it.
“And that’s a great send by Jirsch. Great job by Kyle. Great job by Colson putting the ball in play. That was a huge run to tack on.”
Taylor did the rest with overpowering pitching over the final four innings.
“I think it was execution,” Taylor said. “We had a really good game plan with (pitching coach Zach) Bove in between innings and Kyle called a great game. But outside of the game plan, I think it was execution of pitches.”
The right-hander allowed two hits while striking out six in the 42-pitch effort.
“Incredible,” Venable said. “Grant has been our guy the entire year. We’re going into that one not expecting four innings from him, but he was so efficient, kept going, wanting the ball in the ninth there.”
Taylor struck out the side in the ninth, securing the Game 1 win.
“The first game in the series is essential, very important,” Murakami said. “And I’m just really happy that we pulled this off.”