White Sox 6, Angels 0: Davis Martin and Munetaka Murakami Silence Anaheim

The lead

May 4, 2026 - Anaheim, Calif. - The Chicago White Sox made Monday look easy in Orange County. Davis Martin fired seven shutout innings with 10 strikeouts, no walks, and five hits scattered, Munetaka Murakami launched his 14th homer—pulling even with Aaron Judge for the major-league lead—and Miguel Vargas also went deep in a 6-0 shutout of the Los Angeles Angels, per ESPN.

Andrew Benintendi singled four times and drove in a run as Chicago won for the sixth time in seven games, while the Angels dropped 13 of 15 despite entering the night touting Jose Soriano’s ace-level April.

How the game turned

The game turned when Soriano (5-2) could not replicate his early-season command. Fighting neck stiffness from his previous turn, he threw nine of his first 11 pitches for balls, walked two in the first, and watched Chase Meidroth and Benintendi chip RBI singles for a 2-0 lead before the stadium settled.

Soriano danced through traffic in the second and third, but the fourth unraveled: Sam Antonacci singled, Murakami ambushed a 98 mph heater and estimated a 429-foot two-run shot to center, and Vargas followed with a solo blast to right-center for 5-0. Soriano’s final line—five runs, eight hits, five strikeouts, three walks, 88 pitches for 12 outs—stood in stark contrast to the 0.84 ERA he carried through his first seven starts, per ESPN.

Martin (5-1) avoided danger even when Josh Lowe threatened a storybook flyout with runners on the corners in the seventh, escaping his lone jam on a deep drive to center.

Pitching and matchup notes

Martin lowered his ERA to 1.64 with the outing, pairing efficiency with swing-and-miss rarely seen from back-end starters. Chicago’s bullpen only needed clean frames after he handed off the shutout blueprint.

For Anaheim, Soriano’s mechanical “out of whack” diagnosis from local coverage fit the eye test once fastballs climbed and secondaries missed spots. The Angels still received two-hit efforts from Nolan Schanuel and Travis d’Arnaud, but nothing that threatened Martin’s zero.

Bats that changed the board

Murakami’s two-run homer cleared the largest hurdle for the offense, while Benintendi’s pestiferous singles kept innings breathing before the power surge. Vargas’ back-to-back shot turned a solid lead into a no-doubt margin.

The Angels’ inability to convert Soriano’s early escapes meant the game stayed within reach until the fourth; after that, the combination of contact and power from Chicago’s middle infield corners was too much for a taxed starter.

AthX Engine fantasy angle

AthX Engine graded the White Sox at 15 team FP on May 4, third on the slate. Davis Martin paced all pitchers at 30 pitching FP, while Murakami led hitters at 13 hitting FP—a textbook stack of ace-level fantasy pitching and rookie thunder on the same card. That pairing is why club totals can spike even when the run line stops at six: strikeouts and zeros matter as much as the long ball. AthX Engine scoring is not dynamic pricing.

What comes next

Erick Fedde and Sam Aldegheri were slated for Tuesday’s rematch, per ESPN. Chicago rides a road heater into midweek; Anaheim must get Soriano’s health and delivery in sync before another divisional slide hardens into a season story.

*Sources: MLB.com schedule, MLB Gameday, ESPN recap, Associated Press via ESPN, and AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*