Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 4, Cleveland 0

The Chicago White Sox avoided the sweep and won late in the ballgame over Cleveland. Lucas Giolito’s dominant performance, and the late-innings offense, went to work!

FanGraphs

The Starts
Luc-ace G-elite-o is back! Pitching a scoreless six innings, Giolito earned the quality start. He gave up four hits, and he pitched out of two jams. He did walk two batters, but he struck out six. He was absolutely slicing and dicing, and it was a pleasure to watch!

Zach Plesac, credit to him, was a bit more brilliant than our ace. He pitched eight shutout innings while fanning 11 batters. He only gave up three hits and pitched out of a ducks on the pond with two outs situation. Cleveland has a stacked rotation, but their bullpen is very vulnerable.

Pressure Play
Carlos Santana faced the most pressure on any one play this game. In the sixth inning, he had the bases loaded for a second time this night. Giolito induced a 3.91 LI fly out to center to end the inning while keeping the game scoreless.

Pressure Cooker
Santana rolls over into this stat category as well, just edging out José Abreu’s 1.70 pLI that stemmed from his walk to load the bases in the ninth. As alluded to earlier, Santana found himself at the plate with the bases loaded twice. He grounded into a double play the first time and flew out the second. He could not handle the pressure, and robbed Cleveland of some very valuable runs.

Top Play
In the top of the ninth inning, Brad Hand came in to relieve for the second straight night. The first night, Tim Anderson doubled off of Hand. Tonight? TA7 did it again with his .166 WPA hit! This double catalyzed the White Sox’s offense. They went on to load the bases, and each of the three runners on base found home as the inning progressed. That’s what you like to see!

Game MVP
Edging out our ace, Plesac takes the MVP honors for the losing ball club. His masterful performance awarded him a .597 WPA, but once he left the game, the South Siders’ offense came alive!

Magic Number: 88
Luis Robert will be the AL ROY, and that is why he is constantly hogging the magic number stat. It has been very well-deserved. In his sixth straight game, Robert recorded a hit, and this one was timely and added two insurance runs. With two outs in the ninth and runners on second and third, Luis singled up the middle on a 2-0 pitch for a clutch hit! Both runners scored, and Luis has proven that he can consistently rake. Keep it going!

I’d like to give out an honorable mention to the bullpen! What a series for these arms!

Time to carry this momentum into Kansas City. Off-day tomorrow, but the White Sox are ready for Friday!