3 Opening Day overreactions after White Sox' poor performance against Brewers

If we’re being honest, not a ton can be concluded based on a team’s performance in their first game of the season. There are 162 games in a baseball season, and making generalizations based on one game’s results would be irresponsible. Let’s take 2025 for example. The White Sox hit three home runs and cruised to an easy 8-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. Based on that performance, you’d think they were a top team in the American League, but they went on to lose 100 games and finish with the second-worst record in baseball. 

There’s no question the White Sox performance in Milwaukee on Thursday afternoon was ugly. Realistically, though, those games happen, and the only difference between this game happening now and in July is the date on the calendar. While realism tells us it’s not a big deal, sometimes fans want to vent and don’t want to be realistic in their reactions. So let’s do it. Here are three takeaways from Thursday’s game that are almost certainly overreactions.

Colson Montgomery’s 2025 surge was a fluke

White Sox infielder Colson Montgomery took the league by storm in 2025, making his big league debut in July and hitting 21 home runs in the second half of the season. It was a remarkable run for Montgomery just a couple months after he was removed from Triple-A game action and sent to Arizona to work on his mechanics. Many White Sox fans have dreamed about Montgomery’s potential and the expectation is he’ll take another step forward in 2026. Unfortunately, after just one game, it seems like his 2025 performance was a fluke. Montgomery went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and looked lost at the plate. He chased breaking balls in the dirt too often in 2025, but was able to make up for it by crushing fastballs over the plate. Montgomery clearly wasn’t seeing the ball well Thursday, taking multiple hittable fastballs and chasing multiple pitches off the plate. Big league pitchers will adjust and give him less hittable pitches, so if he doesn't start laying off the pitches out of the zone, he's going to find himself in trouble. He’s only got 161 more games to turn things around. 

The White Sox entire pitching staff is brutal 

While the last one was dripping with sarcasm, there may actually be a little bit of truth to this one, though it’s hard to envision them being as bad as they were on Thursday all year. White Sox starter Shane Smith had a nice first inning, but couldn’t make it out of the second after a pair of walks, an error, and a bloop single led to the big hit by William Contreras. The White Sox used five relievers after Smith and four of them allowed at least two runs. Overall, the pitching staff walked ten batters, and Jordan Leasure was the only White Sox pitcher to post a scoreless outing. The White Sox starting pitching definitely feels like the weakest part of their team, but it looks like the bullpen that we thought was better is actually going to be worse. Jordan Hicks looks just like he did with Boston, Jedixson Paez looks overmatched against big league hitters, and Sean Newcomb seems to have had a flukey 2025. While the pitching struggles are something worth keeping an eye on, making those generalizations after one game seems a bit overboard. We’ll see how the next couple months play out. 

Munetaka Murakami is going to be the White Sox best hitter

Overreations can be had on the positive side as well. This is another one that’s somewhat believable, and there’s no doubt his Opening Day performance was impressive. With questions circling about his ability to his velocity, Murakami had two strong at bats against Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski, who frequently dialed his fastball close to triple digits. Murakami took some close pitches and drew walks in each of those plate appearances. Against the Brewers bullpen, Murakami hit a hard ground ball that almost snuck through the hole between first and second, then launched his first big league home run in the 9th. Overall, Murakami reached base in three of his four at bats and didn’t strike out despite the White Sox having 20 as a team. There is undoubtedly going to be an adjustment period and Murakami will go through struggles, but Murakami does have the talent to be the White Sox best hitter, and he showed that talent on Thursday. With 161 games to go in 2026, it feels like it’s a bit early to make that statement, however.

I can see the comments now questioning my intelligence for drawing these conclusing after one game. I'd like to emphasize again that these are overreactions. It's very likely that none of these things are actually true. But so far, one game is all we have to go on. Buckle up, Sox fans. It's going to be a long season. Let's just try to enjoy the ride and see how it all plays out.