Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 5, Orioles 1

This is going to be a fun series for the Chicago White Sox, whose dominant pitching and late-inning offense secured the win against the Baltimore Orioles in game one of a four-game weekend series.

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The Starters

Dylan Cease continues to impress. A quality start under his belt from tonight’s game, Cease went six innings of one-run baseball. The one run he gave up? A solo shot in the fourth off of the bat of Freddy Galvis. He gave up three more hits and two walks, but he also fanned 10.

With this production from the fifth starter, this staff can really take the Sox far. Cease is doing an incredible job.

Cease’s career-high, 111-pitch outing breaks down like this:

Baseball Savant

Bruce Zimmerman brought his A-game as well. Falling an inning short of a quality start, Zimmerman gave up one run — a Yermín Mercedes 3-0 count solo blast in the second — and six hits. He surrendered one walk to his six strikeouts.

His 82-pitch night looks like this:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

With the game tied 1-1 in the sixth and runners on first and second, D.J. Stewart flew out to center field for the second out (2.87 LI), failing to advance the runners, who would not score that inning.

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Pressure Cooker

Tanner Scott, recording only one out in the game, faced a 2.11 pLI coupled with one hit and one strikeout. Surprisingly, César Valdez, who also only recorded one out, only faced a 0.99 pLI, and he gave up three runs off of three hits.

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Top Play

Billy “The Winning Hitter” Hamilton broke the 1-1 tie in the sixth with an RBI single to center field (.180 WPA).

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Top Performer

Putting together one of his best performances of his young career, Dylan Cease and his .228 WPA was by far tonight’s top performer, and it is beyond satisfying to have a fifth starter who is pitching so much better than a typical fifth starter.

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Smackdown

Hardest hit: The Yermínator is back! Yermín Mercedes crushed a baseball (116.8 mph) to the left-field bleachers in the second inning on ... a 3-0 count (smirky face).

José Abreu’s double in the seventh left his bat at 114.5 mph, trying to keep pace with Mercedes.

Weakest contact: Pito’s -38 degree launch angle ground out at 64.8 mph in the first would hold up through all nine innings as tonight’s weakest contact.

Luckiest hit: Nick Madrigal strikes again, with a routine, 83.5 mph grounder to short in the third that carried an .050 xBA — infield hit!

Toughest out: Billy “The Hitter” Hamilton smoked an .820 xBA line out to left in the fourth inning. His .330 xBA baseball notched an RBI single in the sixth, breaking the 1-1 tie and ended up being the winning run.

Longest hit: Of course, Mercedes’ 427-foot blast in the second traveled the furthest of any baseball in this game. OK, that is a lie. Baseballs come a long way from Costa Rica to Chicago.

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Magic Number: 39

Yasmani Grandal, in his 2-spot debut in 2021, notched his American-League-leading 39th walk. Yaz will walk 500 miles to get to you, and soon, he will walk a thousand miles just to see you.

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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

On a 196-comment night, AnoHito makes it two straight:

As for the green, only Lurker Laura broke the tape, and just barely: