White Sox 6, Rays 1: Four Homers Quiet AL-Leading Tampa Bay

Four balls left the Trop. Tampa Bay had no answer.

July 31, 2026 – St. Petersburg – The American League leaders hosted the American League Central leaders and spent the night watching baseballs leave Tropicana Field in the wrong direction.

Miguel Vargas went first, 433 feet, the longest homer of his career. Andrew Benintendi made it 2-0 in the second. Munetaka Murakami tied the Japanese rookie home run record with his 24th in the third. Colson Montgomery capped it with a two-run shot in the sixth. The Chicago White Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays 6-1 and looked every bit the first-place club that just took two extras from the Yankees.

Murakami keeps rewriting the early-career chart

Murakami's 24th homer matched Kazuma Okamoto for the Japanese rookie record. Through 74 career games he also owns a .381 on-base percentage. The only player in MLB history to match or beat both marks through the same stretch is Yordan Alvarez.

Vargas, Murakami, and Montgomery have now homered in the same game five times this season, the first trio to do that since Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager, and Joc Pederson for the Dodgers in 2019. That is not a coincidence line. That is a middle of the order that keeps stacking nights like this.

Junior Caminero supplied Tampa Bay's only run with his team-leading 30th homer in the fourth. He is the first Rays hitter with back-to-back 30-homer seasons since Carlos Peña from 2007-09. One swing. One run. Not enough.

Fedde handled the rest

Erick Fedde threw five innings with six strikeouts and one run on four hits for the win. Alex Cook and Chris Roycroft combined for one hit over the final three innings. Nick Martinez took the loss after allowing all six runs in six innings. Before Friday, he had given up more than three runs only once all season. He also allowed four homers for the first time in his career.

That is how a first-place club loses at home: the visitor's 3-4-5-6 hitters go deep, and the staff cannot find a zero when it needs one.

AthX Engine backed the road power show

AthX Engine (AthX's projection and scoring system) gave Chicago 14 team fantasy points. Murakami scored 9 hitting FP. Fedde added 15 pitching FP. Those numbers sit behind the blowouts on the slate and still rank as a complete road win against the AL's best record.

Fantasy points measure performance under platform rules. Share prices also move with market activity through dynamic pricing. Four homers against Tampa Bay are the story. The board just keeps the count.

Deadline weekend, Central lead intact

Noah Schultz draws Drew Rasmussen on Saturday. Chicago remains alone atop the AL Central. Tampa Bay still leads the East, but Friday was a reminder that first place does not protect you from a White Sox lineup that is swinging with confidence.

Vargas set the tone at 433 feet. Murakami tied a record. Montgomery finished the math. The Trop had no answer for any of it.

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*Sources: MLB.com Gameday final, ESPN recap and box score, MLB.com schedule, and AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*