Ildemaro Vargas hit two homers and drove in a career-high five runs and the Arizona Diamondbacks withstood Munetaka Murakami, who homered in a fifth straight game, to hold off the Chicago White Sox 11-7 in Phoenix on Wednesday.
Murakami leads the American League with 10 homers, eight on the road, and he became the fastest player in White Sox history to reach 10, doing it in 24 games. He broke a tie with Shohei Ohtani to become the only Japanese-born player to homer in five straight games.
Murakami had three hits, and his 451-foot two-run homer off Ryan Thompson in the seventh brought the White Sox within 10-7, but the Diamondbacks added a run on Geraldo Perdomo’s second triple of the game in the last of the inning and Paul Sewald left two on in the ninth.
Nolan Arenado had four hits, including a homer, scored three runs and drove in three for the Diamondbacks, who evened the series and broke a two-game losing streak in which they had given up 21 runs.
Corbin Carroll had three hits and scored twice and Perdomo had three hits and an RBI. Both reached four times.
Arizona had a season-high 16 hits in support of Eduardo Rodriguez (2-0), who gave up four runs and six hits in five innings. He struck out four and walked three, leaving with an 8-4 lead.
Colson Montgomery homered for the fourth consecutive game and Miguel Vargas homered for the third straight for the White Sox, who have 14 homers in their last four games.
Montgomery homered in four straight games for the second time in his career. He did it from Aug. 22-26 last year.
Ildemaro Vargas hit a three-run homer in a four-run second and added a two-run shot in the third to give Arizona a 6-3 lead. Arenado’s two-run homer in the sixth pushed the cushion to 10-5.
Ildemaro Vargas extended his season-opening hitting streak to a franchise-record 17 games, and his 20-game hitting streak dating to last season is the longest active streak in the majors.
Anthony Kay (1-1) gave up eight runs and eight hits, including both Vargas homers, in 3 2/3 innings. He struck out one and walked four, and he balked in Carroll with the first run in Arizona’s two-run fourth to make it 8-4.
