AL DIVISION SERIES: WHITE SOX VS GUARDIANS

October 6, 2026

Munetaka Murakami

Rate Field

Chicago White Sox

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. I know you talked about not being familiar with the previous culture. You're focused on this one, which is a winning culture. Is there a point or a moment or two that you knew this team was something more than just a good story that could really do what you guys have done right now?

Is there a point in the season at some point where you kind of knew that this team was a contender, not just a team that had made great strides that could really go into the postseason?

MUNETAKA MURAKAMI: From the beginning, I've been mentioning that we are the winning culture team with a winning attitude. And it's from the beginning right away that I felt that. We started off losing three straight, but it was really close games, and obviously, Brewers came back in some of the games as well.

I knew right away that we were a contending team in that situation, so to answer your question, from the beginning.

Q. What has stood out to you about the crowds here at Rate Field, and how much energy have they given you throughout the year as well?

MUNETAKA MURAKAMI: Yeah, the crowds have been 100 percent really awesome throughout the year. It gets really loud, and I just have -- I'm initially happy the crowds are there and are supporting the team all the way.

Q. Mune, I was talking to Kaz Matsui the other day and is talking about how you're a big story, a front-page story in Japan, the same here. Do you feel any extra kind of pressure, or what kind of pressure do you feel being counted on to represent so many people?

MUNETAKA MURAKAMI: I actually don't feel the pressure at all. During my nine-year career in Japan, I've experienced a lot of things, experienced a lot through the baseball career there.

Actually, there was lots of big moments I have gone through, which leads to my point that I don't feel the pressure. It feels the same as throughout the season.

Q. What have you learned about the Major League Baseball playoff atmosphere throughout this first go-around for you?

MUNETAKA MURAKAMI: So it's our first postseason. Our PitchCom device has changed a little bit so that it's sticking out so that we can hear the sound better. It's, I think, based on the atmosphere environment of the sound noises. So that's what I felt the difference the most in postseason.

Q. Mune, what's impressed you most about what this team has done, your team has done during the four-game winning streak here to start the playoffs?

MUNETAKA MURAKAMI: I think the biggest part is that as a team, we're very unified together. It really shows on the field as our batting, one through nine, we're contributing on all, let's say, points on all the games.

If you look at the bullpen, they're coming in taking out batters in tough positions. Like I said, contributing. And at the end, I think we're very much, like I said, unified as a team. We're looking in the same direction, one direction, and I think that's what stood up the most in that four-game series, and that's why we're able to have success in this stretch.

Q. What, if anything, do you need to do to readjust to hitting here? You've not been back in about 10 days, 12 days. Obviously, you played 65 games here during the season. Having been away from Rate Field for a while, what, if anything, do you need to do to get readjusted to hitting here again?

MUNETAKA MURAKAMI: Yeah, there's not. There's not too much, yeah.

Q. As you came in the Major Leagues, there's been a lot of transition in travels, maintenance and recovery. What have you been doing since you got to the Majors that you had not been doing in your Japanese career?

MUNETAKA MURAKAMI: The main thing is about just more or less the preparation, I think, is the biggest part. In the Major Leagues, we have the night games, day games, and then sleep supplements to get my sleep recovery better. Other than that, I think it's more the preparation and not much has really changed from my Japanese career to here.

Q. What do you feel about winning the two games in Cleveland and then coming back to Rate Field, facing them tomorrow?

MUNETAKA MURAKAMI: First of all, I'm happy that we pulled that two-game win in Cleveland. But the playoffs, you can't take it for granted. So we still have a lot of jobs to do. We've got to convert on our chances. So we're very much focused, and I think that's what we have to do coming into tomorrow.

Q. In the course of the season, we have seen Will Venable manage these situations very nicely. What do you see from Will Venable throughout this season that stood out the most?

MUNETAKA MURAKAMI: Yeah, I mean, as a managing job, managing a team, I'm not experienced into that so I can't put into words of what he's going through and doing well. As a person, he communicates very much well with me and has been very much open to me, and that's why we have such a good relationship together.

I just love him as a person, and I'm really happy that he's my manager. So I think that's pretty much what I feel about Will Venable.

Q. During the regular season, we have several game stretches where you play several, 10 games, 12 games in a row. What is the difference between having that and in the postseason, where you get one day off to the next, and how do you approach that game and how does your body feel?

MUNETAKA MURAKAMI: Yeah, I act accordingly with the schedule that I'm given. As a baseball player, I'm always prepared to play any day and any time, whenever it comes.

So I don't think it changed anything at all, whether it's regular season or postseason. If we get one day off, it's about how I am as a baseball player.

Q. You guys have no losses during the postseason. Is there any superstitions or a jinx that you have?

MUNETAKA MURAKAMI: Yeah, I don't have a superstition or a jinx, but the thing that I'm doing for the first day of the season until the postseason is exactly the same.

Q. In the beginning of September, you mentioned that it's start looking for the postseason, aim for the postseason. Was there any conversations or discussions made throughout the team to aim for the postseason and get the direction in the same direction?

MUNETAKA MURAKAMI: As we aimed for the postseason, we were going into, let's say, discussions on the situational baseball that we would encounter in the postseason, such as bunt situations and other formations.

As we began to do that, we, as a team, we knew right away that what we have to be, in what position we have to be in order to be able to be contenders in the playoff situations.

Q. I'm sorry if this is something I misconceived, but did you get a haircut?

MUNETAKA MURAKAMI: No haircut.

THE MODERATOR: All right, Mune, thank you.