Well, that game was fairly awful — or at least the last third of it was.
After leading or being tied for most of the game, Zack Burdi yakked a relief appearance and a very late rally by the White Sox fell short. Kansas City turned the tables on the White Sox, clouting four homers today.
Look at the WPA line just falling off of a cliff for the White Sox in the seventh:
The Starts
Dylan Cease has had the weirdest lines of any White Sox starter this season. Today he had six walks, but none of them scored. In fact, he gave up just one run and one hit — a homer. Still, he got deep into counts and continued an annoying trend of getting batters in the hole and letting them dig back out. His game score was 48, his worst in four starts and lower than the White Sox team average of 51.8.
Brady Singer, in his second start, went toe-to-toe with Cease, compiling a 45 and actually going five innings (Cease was yanked in the top of the fifth). That’s right in line with all White Sox opponents this year, averaging a 45.2.
Pressure Play
José Abreu faced the most pressure in the game, 3.11 LI, on his bases-loaded strikeout that ended the third inning, pounding nails in the coffin of a golden opportunity to break the game open. Yasmani Grandal’s bases-loaded whiff one batter earlier counted as the third-biggest pressure play of the game.
Pressure Cooker
Burdi complied the most pressure for the game, at 1.61 pLI, and he really wilted under it: recording just one out, the rookie yielded two homers, four hits and five earned runs, putting the game out of reach for the White Sox.
Top Play
Maikel Franco’s three-run homer in the seventh off of Burdi pushed Ricky Renteria out to rescue the rookie, five earned runs too late. It was a .241 WPA hit, the highest value added in the game.
Game MVP
K.C.’s Ryan O’Hearn took the MVP, with .325 WPA on a 2-for-4, homer, two-RBI day. Ryan McBroom finished second, with pinch-homer, and Edwin Encarnación got third-place honors.
Magic Number: 52
Encarnación’s home run gave the White Sox 52 for August, which is an all-time franchise mark for a single month.