:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/67380425/1228429392.jpg.0.jpg)
The good news is that the White Sox have won all four games Dane Dunning has started this season.
The better news is that Dunning finally earned his first major league win, in Wednesday’s 8-1 shellacking of Pittsburgh.
James McCann slugged two homers and added a sac fly, there was superb defense from both Luis Robert and ... Eloy Jiménez in the outfield, and Yoán looked like the Moncada of old with some high exit velocities, strong defense, and speed on the basepaths.
Just as the White Sox did in K.C. after that ugly series-ender vs. Minnesota last week, the South Siders chased a sloppy game with a near-flawless one. That might be the most inspiring takeaway of the night, that the club follows its sloppy losses with very tight wins.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/21868464/Screen_Shot_2020_09_09_at_11.49.58_PM.png)
The Starts
Dunning has been stellar this season. There’s just no other way to put it:
71 game score for Dunning tonight, tied for the sixth-best on the White Sox this season. Two of his four starts are among the seven best on the team in 2020.
— South Side Hit Pen (@southsidehitpen) September 10, 2020
He's had four career starts.
TJ Brubaker had a great look, with No. 21 Clemente jersey and sweet stirrups, but was otherwise not so lucky. He threw 5 ⅓ innings and got pretty mauled by the White Sox offense, yanked after McCann’s second ding-dong of the night. All told, seven hits, seven earned, and a 26 game score.
Pressure Play
The biggest pressure play of the game was not either of McCann’s homers, but his fourth inning sacrifice fly to make the score 3-0, White Sox. It was just a 1.89 LI moment, but in a blowout, pressure is harder to come by.
Pressure Cooker
It was as tight battle between him and Brubaker, but McCann won the pressure battle with 0.78 pLI tonight. The catcher came through big time under pressure, with three at-bats resulting in RBIs.
Top Play
In terms of value-added McCann’s first, solo homer, breaking a scoreless tie in the third inning, was the biggest of the night, at .113 WPA.
Game MVP
No one else was close to Dunning, whose fabulous outing earned .216 WPA. McCann (.150) and Yasmani Grandal (.056) trailed him, in the White Sox sweep of the category.
Magic Number: 1
Every player in the White Sox lineup had at least one hit (including José Abreu’s career-best 22nd straight game with a safety). For all the high octane of the White Sox offense, that’s the first time this season it’s happened.