The Buzz — Friday, September 18

Munetaka Murakami

The take Viral three-run homer lifts Sox into AL Central tie

The swing was real — 423 feet to center off Framber Valdez on the first pitch, a left-on-left shot that supplied every run in a 3-1 win. But the crowd saw the highlight and skipped the month behind it. Since Aug. 1, Murakami was hitting .130 with a .299 slugging percentage and 77 strikeouts in 154 at-bats. The Tribune counted nine hits in his previous 95 at-bats — a .095 clip — and 50 strikeouts in his last 27 games. He had been benched the day before.

One swing does not undo six weeks of that. The 77 strikeouts are the cost of a three-true-outcomes profile that was always going to run cold, and the .130 stretch was a real problem, not noise. But the White Sox are 78-75, tied with idle Cleveland at 78-75, holding the head-to-head tiebreaker at 7-6 with nine games left and a magic number of nine. A contender needs its linchpin, and last night he was — 2-for-4 with his first career triple and a strong throw on defense.

The power is still there — 423 feet to center off a left-hander says so — and Chicago is back in first because of it. What remains is whether one night turns into a week, because nine games leaves no room for another .130 stretch.

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Yordan Alvarez

The take Alvarez 40th HR fuels Triple Crown talk, Astros lead West

He is tied for the batting lead at .311, with a 1.027 OPS. The 40th home run is real. The Triple Crown is not — not yet. He has 99 RBIs, three behind Pete Alonso's 102, and 40 home runs, one behind Junior Caminero's 41. He leads neither category. The chase is genuine with nine games left, and a 35-game stretch since Aug. 3 of .242/.380/.383 with three homers shows how thin the margin is. Chasing and owning are different things, and he is only doing one.

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Trevor Story

The take Story's clutch 3-run HR lifts Sox, drops Rangers

The number that stops you is not the home run — it is the distance between them. Story's eighth-inning blast that turned a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 lead was his first home run since May 13, his fourth of the season. Four months without one, and then the swing that avoided a sweep and cut Boston's magic number to three.

The Rangers fell to 76-77, one game behind Houston, and the standings moved as much as Story's stat line. A five-game lead for the top AL wild card means the Red Sox are nearly home. But a player hitting his fourth homer in late September is not a bat you build a postseason around — he is a player who picked the right moment, and the moment was large enough to carry the night.

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Kyle Tucker

The take Tucker four-hit near-cycle sparks Dodgers NL West clinch

Four hits, a two-run homer, two doubles, and three RBIs in an 8-2 clincher — the Dodgers have their fifth straight NL West title, 13th in 14 seasons, a 93-60 record, and a 14th consecutive postseason tying the Braves' mark. The night was everything the crowd saw. The season was not. Tucker's home run was his 16th, and his average sits at .232. A four-hit game in a clincher is timely production, and October is what the contract was for. He is arriving on time.

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Jared Young

The take Scary Mets collision causes concussion symptoms

The stretcher and the thumbs-up happened in the same sequence, and both were true. Jared Young was knocked unconscious in the sixth inning when pitcher Nolan McLean's knee struck him in the head as both converged on a slow grounder near first base — an accidental collision, miscommunication on a routine play. He was immobilized, carted off, and regained consciousness on the field.

The CT scan came back negative, and he has full use of his extremities. Those two facts are the verdict: structural damage and spinal injury are off the table. What remains is real concussion symptoms and MLB protocol, which means missed time for a 31-year-old hitting .266 with nine homers in 103 games in his first full season. Andy Green called it terrifying, and it was. It also looks like it ended as well as something that frightening can end.

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