Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 7, Cleveland 3

Lance Lynn (aka Thicc Nasty, shout-out Tommy Barbee!) is back, and he and Michael Kopech throttled the Wahoos this afternoon. The big runs came courtesy of a Tim Anderson grand slam (sacks packed with walks!), making for a nice bounce-back win.

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The Starters

Lance Lynn picked right back up where he’d left off before a brief IL break with a fuzzy shoulder going five innings, 1-3-2-2 giving up four hits, three earned, and two walks against two Ks, for a 47 game score.

Clearly this was a cautionary return game for Lynn, throwing just 68 pitches. He was feeling things out back on the mound, not particularly sharp (six hard hits in a short outing) but still nibbling at the zone and getting just enough key pitches to earn the win.

To wit, Lynn’s velocity was down, as was spin rate. As a power painter, though, the veteran was still able to command up and down in the zone, enough to stifle the soft Cleveland offense.

Here’s a breakdown of Lynn’s 68 tosses:

You’re not going to see many weirder starts that this one from two-inning man Triston McKenzie. Every one of his outs came via strikeout. One problem: four walks.

Worse, all four walks came in advance of the hardest-hit ball of the game, Tim Anderson’s grand slam. Bad timing for Triston, STICK TALK timing for Timmay. It was the only hard-hit ball the White Sox had off of McKenzie in the game.

All told, it was two innings, one hit, and five earned for McKenzie, for a 31 game score.

Is it bad to take 57 pitches to get through two innings?

Fastest pitch: Aaron Bummer tossed a 98.9 mph sinker to Jake Bauers in the ninth inning, the first pitch of the strikeout that would end the game. It broke down 22 inches and away from Bauers 20. Good luck, Jake.

The top 19 velos came from the White Sox today, in fact. It was arm-to-arm combat between Bummer and Michael Kopech all the way.

Most swing-and-misses: About the only thing McKinzie excelled at is a game-best 13 swings-and-misses. Michael Kopech was second, with nine.

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Pressure Play

Think it was Tim Anderson’s grand slam? Well, you’d be WRONG! It was in fact Leury García’s bases-loaded walk just prior to TA’s titanic clout that brought the most pressure, at 3.03 LI.

[ALERT: Heavy action of a bases-loaded walk, below]

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Pressure Cooker

Triston McKenzie, darting through traffic throughout the second inning after striking out the side in the first, pickled himself into the most pressure of the game, at 1.26 pLI.

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Top Play

By a wide margin in a relative runaway game today, it was Tim Anderson’s grand slam that brought to the most value in the game. Anderson clocked a 1-2 nothingburger of a 90.5 mph fastball that was juicy and center-cut, deep into the Cleveland bullpen.

PASTA FOR EVERYBODY

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Top Performer

Thanks to the salami alone, TA took top honors with .207 WPA for the game.

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Smackdown

Luckiest hit: Luis Robert tapped a fourth inning single to third base that was a mere fart of a 64.9 mph hit, for an xBA of .120. Perhaps fittingly, he was picked off of first base after the single.

Toughest out: It wasn’t smoked (62.6 mph), but Austin Hedges flared a pop into no-man’s land that Leury García snagged for an out. The duck snort had a .780 xBA, so bully for you Leury Legend.

Hardest hit: Tim Anderson’s grandissimo was clubbed at 103.2 mph, and the Cleveland bullpenners scattered away from the missile like the softies they are.

Weakest contact: Not a bunt, but might as well have been; Eddie Rosario led off the Cleveland ninth with a baby fart back to Aaron Bummer, nudged out at 44.9 mph.

Longest hit: Hedges dispensed with the duck snorts in the fifth, crushing a Lance Lynn sinker 407 feet to left-center.

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Magic Number: 4

It’s Kamka time, unearthing a unique note about hits/runs ratio today.

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Glossary

Hard-hit is any ball off the bat at 95 mph or more
LI measures pressure per play
pLI measures total pressure faced in game
Whiff a swing-and-miss
WPA win probability added measures contributions to the win
xBA expected batting average

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South Side Sox Gamethread Stats

Just 129 comments, but steely3000 takes the win:

wissoxfan83 vultured the grand slam reactions rather nicely, parlaying the move into a seven-rec winner: