Munetaka Murakami’s homer streak ends, but Andrew Benintendi’s blast seals red-hot White Sox’ win

PHOENIX — Munetaka Murakami’s home run tear came to an end Thursday, but Andrew Benintendi carried the torch for a rejuvenated White Sox offense in their 4-1 win over the Diamondbacks.

The veteran Benintendi slammed a three-run, ninth-inning homer off closer Paul Sewald to seal a three-game series win in Arizona — and put an exclamation mark on an invigorating West Coast road trip after starter Davis Martin’s latest impressive outing.

While the Sox’ unprecedented dinger bonanza came to an end, Munetaka Murakami, Colson Mongomery and Miguel Vargas each tagged singles, three for the shortstop.

They’d been on a West Coast tear with Vargas homering in three straight games, Montgomery in four straight and Murakami for a franchise-record-tying five — the first time in MLB history that a trio of teammates ever went on such torrid streaks concurrently.

Vargas still put the Sox on the board with an RBI single in the third inning, and had a fly ball fall a few feet shy of keeping his run alive in the ninth. Murakami struck out three times but also made a diving stop in the field.

After getting tagged for an RBI double in the first inning, Martin settled down, underscoring his status as the staff’s most dependable arm. He traded zeroes with D-backs starter and former Sox pitcher Michael Soroka and the Arizona bullpen until manager Will Venable gave him the hook in the seventh inning after giving up a single.

Grant Taylor entered and gave up a double, but struck his way out of the jam, earning a dugout kiss from a thankful Martin, who sprinkled six hits and a walk over his 6⅓ innings with seven strikeouts.

The Sox carry momentum with them back to Chicago after a six-game road trip that saw their team OPS jump more than 100 points while scoring 41 runs and slugging 15 home runs. Most of those came from the heart of the order in Vargas, Montgomery and Murakami, who has put himself in the national spotlight with a five-game homer streak.

The on-field outburst has been a treat for Venable, but he pointed first at what’s going on off the field.

“For me, it’s what’s going on in the clubhouse and these hitter meetings and how these guys are connected and just creating the connection and vibe,” Venable said before the series finale. “When you’re scoring runs, it’s easier to do that. But it’s some of the things that we saw even before we started scoring runs, the way that they communicate with each other, the way that [hitting coach Derek Shomon] runs those meetings, and guys are talking about their approaches and sharing ideas and then going out here and executing it.”