Murakami Draws 3 Walks/HBPs, Batting .202 with .809 OPS as White Sox Close to Within 1 Game of First — 5ch: ‘Guess Your Average Doesn’t Drop Without a Hit lol’

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The story

The Chicago White Sox won 8-1 over the Tigers at home at Rate Field, despite a roughly four-hour rain delay, taking their three-game division series. They’ve now closed the gap on the division-leading Guardians to just one game. Munetaka Murakami, starting at cleanup and first base, went hitless but reached base three times via walks and a hit-by-pitch, driving in one run — his average held at .202, while his OPS stayed at .809. On 5ch, users debated why batting average doesn’t drop in a hitless game, questioned the rule that credits an RBI on a walk, complained about the confusing shorthand team abbreviations “Ho-gun” (White Sox) and “Ga-gun” (Guardians), and speculated on the wild card race.

White Sox Cruise to Win in Game Delayed Nearly 4 Hours by Rain, Close to Within 1 Game of Division-Leading Guardians — Murakami Draws 3 Walks/HBPs, Drives in 1 Run

○ White Sox 8–1 Tigers ● (Local time, September 18, Rate Field)

The Chicago White Sox took their four-game division series against the Detroit Tigers. Infielder Munetaka Murakami (26) started and played the full game batting cleanup at first base, reaching base three times and driving in one run.

Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here

What people said

6AnonymousSep 21, 2026 13:46
Please don't dip below .200
86AnonymousSep 21, 2026 15:47
Re: #6
2023 Kyle Schwarber: 'Who cares if it's the .100s'
https://baseball.yahoo.co.jp/mlb/player/2101244/year
7AnonymousSep 21, 2026 13:46
Wait, they'd fallen this far behind this late in the season…
8AnonymousSep 21, 2026 13:46
No way the White Sox are actually legit contenders — that's the problem right there
9AnonymousSep 21, 2026 13:47
Murakami fading in the second half was totally predictable
11AnonymousSep 21, 2026 13:49
An RBI on a walk is ridiculous
He didn't even hit the ball, why's he getting an RBI?
14AnonymousSep 21, 2026 13:50
Impressive that his OPS is still over .800 even with a .200 average
30AnonymousSep 21, 2026 14:03
Re: #14
He draws a ton of walks so his OBP stays decent, and a good chunk of his rare hits end up being home runs anyway.
82AnonymousSep 21, 2026 15:29
Re: #14
His 'walk-begging' skills (drawing free passes) alone are major-league top class
16AnonymousSep 21, 2026 13:50
I've gotten used to 'Ho-gun' but 'Ga-gun' just doesn't click for me
Can we please retire this shorthand already
18AnonymousSep 21, 2026 13:51
Cleveland just won't lose… ugh, man
22AnonymousSep 21, 2026 13:56
Re: #18
Shouldn't the wild card be fine though? The Astros and Blue Jays aren't pulling away.
26AnonymousSep 21, 2026 14:01
Re: #22
No, I really want them to win the division no matter what — given how last year went, it'd be huge.
28AnonymousSep 21, 2026 14:02
Re: #22
Didn't expect the Astros to be this underwhelming
Even with Alvarez actually staying healthy for once
19AnonymousSep 21, 2026 13:52
Didn't realize his OPS had dropped that much already
Hope he can hang on to .800 somehow
21AnonymousSep 21, 2026 13:55
One more win and the wild card's basically locked up, right?
23AnonymousSep 21, 2026 13:57
Guess your average doesn't drop that much even without a hit lol
35AnonymousSep 21, 2026 14:08
Re: #23
Walks and HBPs don't raise your average, but they don't lower it either
32AnonymousSep 21, 2026 14:04
Abbreviations like 'Re-gun,' 'Ka-gun,' and 'Ma-gun' each overlap with two or three teams (e.g., Rangers/Reds/Rays, Cardinals/Royals/Rockies, Marlins/Mariners/Mets)
Why did this vague shorthand even become the norm
34AnonymousSep 21, 2026 14:07
He's been a mess since the second half started
Can't hit homers and his average keeps sliding
36AnonymousSep 21, 2026 14:08
Re: #28
I don't really want to say it, but Imai is genuinely the one to blame
He's getting paid a big salary, so he shouldn't have switched teams so casually like some prospect
44AnonymousSep 21, 2026 14:14
Re: #28
The team has completely peaked and is on the decline now
This year they were only in the race because the Mariners stumbled on their own — nobody actually thought they could contend for the division
45AnonymousSep 21, 2026 14:15
Impressive that his OPS is over .800 with that batting average
46AnonymousSep 21, 2026 14:16
If his OPS drops below .800 it's really gonna be bad
47AnonymousSep 21, 2026 14:17
Finishing the season in the .100s would actually be more memorable
56AnonymousSep 21, 2026 14:32
Re: #47
Schwarber did that and nobody remembers it
49AnonymousSep 21, 2026 14:18
Getting walked even with the bases loaded lol
58AnonymousSep 21, 2026 14:34
Re: #49
The opposing pitching staff was just terrible
They gave up 9 walks/HBPs in today's game alone
62AnonymousSep 21, 2026 14:36
MLB's 'we're playing this game no matter what' attitude
Just waiting around for it is exhausting
What are they gonna do if global warming makes the weather worse and it just keeps raining?
Are they planning on running triple-headers or something?
Cut the number of games already
89AnonymousSep 21, 2026 15:50
Re: #62
Won't every team just end up with a dome stadium eventually?
68AnonymousSep 21, 2026 14:41
Neither 'Ho' nor 'Ga' clicks for me instantly
70AnonymousSep 21, 2026 14:49
Back in the day, for things like the All-Star Game, people normally said 'Central League squad' and 'Pacific League squad' using '-gun' too.
74AnonymousSep 21, 2026 14:58
Re: #70
Back then a lot of team names actually had '軍' (gun, meaning 'corps/army') built right in.
Tokyo Kyojin-gun (Giants), Hanshin-gun, Hankyu-gun, Nankai-gun, Kinki Nippon-gun, Nagoya-gun, Nagoya Kinshachi-gun, and so on.
88AnonymousSep 21, 2026 15:49
Optics-wise, I feel like dropping below .800 OPS just won't be forgiven
90AnonymousSep 21, 2026 15:52
Re: #88
.200 average, .798 OPS
.200 average, .802 OPS

The impression is completely different
The first one just screams 'total garbage'

Background and Talking Points

MLB rain delays have no time limit, so waiting nearly four hours to resume, as happened here, isn’t unusual. The shorthand terms “Ho-gun” and “Ga-gun” used on 5ch are a holdover from the days when Japanese pro baseball teams like the Tokyo Giants (Kyojin-gun) and Hanshin (Hanshin-gun) used “-gun” (“corps/army”) in their names; posters now loosely apply the same convention to MLB teams, though several complained it’s hard to parse at first glance. The gap between Murakami’s .202 average and .809 OPS reflects that he racks up his on-base numbers largely through walks and hit-by-pitches. Batting average uses at-bats as its denominator, which excludes walks and HBPs, so a hitless game doesn’t actually lower it. Under MLB’s standard rules, a walk that brings a runner home still counts as an RBI, so it isn’t unusual for a player to get credited with an RBI without a hit. Some posts in the thread singled out pitcher Imai as the one “to blame,” but that’s one poster’s personal take, not a definitive explanation for the team’s slump.

*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “[MLB] White Sox Cruise to Win in Game Delayed Nearly 4 Hours by Rain, Close to Within 1 Game of Division-Leading Guardians — Murakami Draws 3 Walks/HBPs, Drives in 1 RBI, .202 Average, .809 OPS.”

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