Six Pack of Stats: Twins 5, White Sox 4

Change the game, and let the kids play.

The Chicago White Sox players back Yermín Mercedes, but they do not take game two of the series against the Minnesota Twins and does-not-like-fun Tyler Duffey, due to a blown 4-0 lead and ninth-inning, walk-off hit.

Anyone for Tim Anderson for player-manager?

Let’s see how this game breaks down mathematically.

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The Starters

Lance Lynn keeps on Lance Lynn-ing. He puts up another quality start, as he went six innings and only gave up two runs. He did surrender five hits, but only walked one and struck out two. The two runs he gave up? Two solo shots off of Miguel Sanó’s bat, who is slowly heating back up, and is the reason why the Twins came back and won.

Lynn’s 109 pitches are broken down like so:

Baseball Savant

(Is he a diamond in MLB The Show yet?)

Bailey Ober made his major-league debut this evening, and it did not go as romantically as one dreams his first start would be. He went four innings, where he gave up four runs off of five hits (two home runs) and one walk. He did strike out four.

The rookie’s 82 pitches:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

With runners on the corners, Luis Arráez moved from first to third on a 4.97 LI defensive indifference.

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Pressure Cooker

Liam Hendriks accumulated a 4.05 LI in just two-third innings pitched, given his blown save.

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Top Play

Yasmani Grandal’s two-run blast in the third gave the White Sox a 4-0 lead, a .178 WPA play.

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Top Performer

With three home runs during the game and getting back into regular shape, Sanó takes tonight’s performance with an incredible .477 WPA.

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Smackdown:

Hardest hit: Right before tallying his last out in his outing, Lance Lynn gave up an absolute laser of a single (114.3 mph) to Trevor Larnach.

Weakest contact: Andrelton Simmons’s bunt ground out against Michael Kopech to begin the bottom of the seventh left his bat at an astounding 38.2 mph.

Luckiest hit: Josh Donaldson’s .190 xBA, 42.6 mph single against Lynn in the first goes for tonight’s luckiest hit.

Toughest out: In the top of the fifth, Yoán Moncada smoked a 107.5 mph, .750 xBA line out against Cody Stashak. If only that was the only toughest out of the game! YoYo outdid himself with a 106.8 mph, .810 xBA line out in the ninth against Taylor Rogers.

Longest hit: His second home run of the game went 418 feet for Miguel Sanó.

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Magic Number: 73

Never apologize for having fun and giving 100%, 73. The series is not over, the season series is not over, the year is not over, and your career is not over. Keep being you; Sox fans — baseball fans — love it!

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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 Roll Call

Wow, this was a spicy, spicy game and gamethread. A whopping 447 comments were headed by two newcomers to the countdown, pilotsheng and WilliamKin04. sheng took the crown with a massive 110-comment game.

TONS of recs tonight, as green was flying all over the place. Top nods ended in a tie, with 12 recs apiece, for SoxFan1959 and horror1967.