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Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 7, Orioles 4 (opener)

Did Jake Lamb read all of our mean tweets?

By Chrystal O'Keefe
The game packed a fair amount of mystery, but by the middle innings things were moving in a distinct South Side direction.
FanGraphs

It’s a gorgeous Saturday in Chicago, so gorgeous that Mother Nature decided late last night that the White Sox should play two today. The rain refused to let up Friday evening. Fans didn’t allow the rain and cold weather prevent them from securing the long-awaited Tim Anderson bat flip bobble head or visiting the recently reopened Revolution Brewing #SoxSocial Tap Room. The game was called at 8:45 p.m., about an hour after announcing the game would still happen and the first pitch would happen at 8:45 pm.

Oh well. Let’s play and win two.

The Starters

Dallas Keuchel was on the bump today for the White Sox, facing a struggling Matt Harvey. Both pitchers faced additional challenges today, up against the very questionable calls of Ángel Hernández.

Kid Keuchy’s velocity and spin were down, making him hittable even by a Baltimore offense that’s a bit piecemeal. And his line, other than the W delivered by a pretty high-powered White Sox offense, was horrible: four earned runs (THREE homers) in five innings. At this admittedly-early juncture, Keuchel has fallen to the No. 5 spot and would not be getting key starts in the postseason. The lefthander finished with a poor game score, of 24.

Here is the breakdown for Keuchel’s 87-pitch outing:

Harvey is Harvey, right? The Baltimore rotation, save for John Means, is horrible. How horrible? MATT HARVEY has started all season in it. Velo and spin were actually up for Harvey in this game, but he wasn’t seeing much break as a result. And he certainly wasn’t fooling any White Sox hitters, as they tagged the veteran with five earned runs over just three innings. Harvey’s amazingly-inefficient, three-inning start garnered a 27 game score, still superior to Keuchel’s.

Here is the breakdown for Harvey’s 88-pitch outing:

Pressure Play

José Abreu’s single to center bringing home Tim Anderson and advancing to second was the pressure play of this game, coming in at 2.43 LI.

Pressure Cooker

Evan Marshall faced the most pressure, in relief of Keuchel. The righthander was able to stop the Orioles, even striking out the newest Oriole (Tyler Nevin) to end the sixth inning. Marshall’s pLI ran up to 1.58.

Top Play

Freddy Galvis unfortunately dominated the top play category today, with two of the three highest WPAs plays. His home run in the first inning registered at .119, followed by a .114 WPA for his fifth-inning home run. Abreu finished second, with his first-inning single at .117 WPA.

Top Performer

José Abreu once again proved he is not only the MVP, but also an RBI merchant. While Moncada brought plenty of guys in for his sixth-inning home run (and had a game WPA of .144), Abreu was at the top of the chart with a WPA of .187.

Smackdown

Hardest hit: While Moncada fell short of distance, his home run in the sixth inning eked out a win against both Abreu and Lamb. That poor ball was hit at 110.8 mph.

Weakest contact: Anthony Santander’s ground out off Keuchel in the third inning only had an exit velocity of 20.1 mph. Yikes.

Luckiest hit: Whether a product of a shift of just sluggish defense from right fielder Jake Lamb, Ryan Mountcastle’s triple to right in the fourth inning was the luckiest hit of the game, lofted down the line with an xBA of only .010.

Toughest out: Anthony Santander’s ground out in the fifth inning was crushed at 106.3 mph, helping to land him in the spot of toughest out. With an xBA of .470, it was the highest by far that resulted in an out.

Longest hit: Are you ready for this one? Please sit down. Okay. Jake Lamb’s rocket home run in the third inning traveled 430 feet, somehow beating out Moncada’s round-tripper by just eight feet.

Magic Number: 3

Jake Lamb now has three home runs this season. Thank you, SSS writer Julie Brady for pointing this out. Since this tweet, Lamb has added another hit to his season total.

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

Poll

Who is your MVP for Game 1 of 2 on Saturday, May 29?

This poll is closed

  • 82%
    José Abreu: 1 R, 3 RBIs, 0.19 WPA
    (37 votes)
  • 13%
    Yoán Moncada: 1 HR, 2 RBIs, 0.14 WPA
    (6 votes)
  • 4%
    Jake Lamb: 1 HR, 1 RBI, 0.08 WPA
    (2 votes)
45 votes total Vote Now

Poll

Who is your Cold Cat for Game 1 of 2 on Saturday, May 29?

This poll is closed

  • 90%
    Yermín Mercedes: 0 for 4, -0.08 WPA
    (40 votes)
  • 4%
    Leury García: 1 Walk, 2 Outs, -0.04 WPA
    (2 votes)
  • 4%
    Nick Madrigal: 1 of 3, -0.05 WPA
    (2 votes)
44 votes total Vote Now

South Side Sox Roll Call

It was a 135-comment opener, and this was a fierce battle between steely3000 and AnoHito. Ano saw his winning streak snapped, however, falling by a 40-36 count.


Shorter game, somewhat of a runaway, relatively small comment count? Whatever the reason, we were stingy with the green in game one, with 12 recs TOTAL:

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