Six Pack of Stats: Yankees 2, White Sox 1

This pitcher’s duel felt like a playoff game for the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees. In a tight-scoring game, the infield defense for both teams kept the game knotted. The South Siders nailed two runners at home, and the Yankees clutched a triple play in the ninth, spilling right into their walk-off victory in the bottom of the frame.

This was a good game, and very winnable for either team. Although the Sox did not come out with the dub, they kept up and set pace with one of the big dogs of the American League.

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The Starters

Carlos Rodón was absolutely brilliant tonight; MLB should not ever forgot to put him in their AL pitcher power rankings and Cy Young candidate predictions.

Los notched a quality start, going six innings and giving up zero runs. He gave up two hits, walked no one, and struck out an incredible 13 batters — including striking out the first five batters of the game!

His shutdown, 95-pitch outing against the Bronx Bombers looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Unfortunately, for the South Siders, Jordan Montgomery also notched a quality start, where he went seven innings and struck out 11 batters while only giving up four hits.

Montgomery’s 90-pitch shutout performance went down like this:

Baseball Savant

Both pitchers earned no decisions, but they were a joy to watch this evening.

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Pressure Play

As anyone could predict, Andrew Vaughn’s grounder to third that sparked a 3.72 LI triple play to keep the Sox out of the ninth inning scoring column and catalyzing the Yanks to fill that column with a run.

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Pressure Cooker

He-who-shall-not-be-named came into the ninth inning and very quickly found two runners on base with zero outs in a 1-1 ballgame. Facing a total pressure of 3.16 pLI, the triple play bailed him out of the inning, or else the outcome of this game would have shifted to favor the South Siders.

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Top Play

Gleyber Torres tallied .223 and .185 WPAs on his home run and walk-off single from tonight’s game.

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Top Performer

Edging Carlos because of an extra inning pitched, Jordan Montgomery earns tonight’s top performer award, as he raised a .443 WPA. Los was third-highest at .355, but Torres edged him by one one-thousandth (.356) for second place on the podium, as he drove in both runs for the Yankees.

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Smackdown

Hardest hit: In the bottom of the fourth, Aaron Judge absolutely demolished a baseball that left the bat at 114.6 mph and recorded a single against Los, one of two hits Carlos gave up all night.

Weakest contact: Nick Madrigal practically flung his bat at the baseball for a game-tying, RBI single in the eighth. I am not still not sure how he made contact on a pitch that left his bat at 56.6 mph, an honorable mention for tonight’s weakest contact.

However, Leury García’s 31.5 mph bunt in the ninth takes home the prize. At that point, the Sox had two on and no outs in the ninth ... and then, a triple play happened.

Luckiest hit: There were not many lucky hits tonight. The one classified as lucky today was Yermín Mercedes’s .320 xBA single in the fourth.

Outside of xBA, Gleyber Torres poked a ball to right field for a home run. Although that ball carried a .410 xBA, Yankee Stadium is the only park of all 30 stadiums where that ball is a home run, according to Jason Benetti on the broadcast.

Toughest out: Luke Voit’s 103.1 mph contact with a .680 xBA, in the bottom of the eighth, found YoYo’s glove for a line out and a double-up at second base, as the runner trailed off the bag not believing Moncada’s quick glove. This double play kept the score tied 1-1, as the Sox escaped the inning and went to the ninth.

Longest hit: Traveling farther than the home run ball (if only it went to right field), Yoán Moncada’s double in the sixth went 395 feet, four feet short of a homer in left-center field.

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Magic Number: 0

Tim Andeson and José Abreu combined to go 0-for-8; their offense is really needed to win games like tonight. However, they each nailed a runner at home to allow 0 out of a possible two runs that could have scored for the Yankees.

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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

pilotsheng makes it three wins in a row, with a site-leading 54 comments of 288 tonight.

KP and Trooper were the only two commenters to go green tonight, tying at just three recs apiece: