Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 3, Royals 0

After an unfortunate loss against the Cincinnati Reds on May 5, the Chicago White Sox put together a quality game against the Kansas City Royals to begin their weekend series in Kansas City, Missouri. (Kansas City is still not in Kansas yet.)

Let’s learn a little bit more about your FIRST PLACE White Sox.

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The Starters

I am HERE for 2021 Carlos Rodón! He simply keeps dominating, and today was no exception. Los was masterful through six shutout innings and became a part of history:

Carlos sprinkled five hits (all singles) throughout the game, but he struck out eight.

Here is how Carlos’s 92-pitch outing breaks down:

Baseball Savant

Los’s mound opponent for tonight’s ballgame, Brad Keller, did not have too shabby of a game, as he also notched a quality start going six innings and giving up three runs. He was not necessarily “Bad” Keller tonight, but he is credited for tonight’s loss for the Royals. Keller allowed five hits (copying Los much?), gave up one walk, a homer, but struck out six.

Keller’s 101-pitch outing went like this:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

Saves are not an easy feat. Liam Hendriks found himself giving up a leadoff double, and Zack Collins’ catcher’s interference put a second runner on base. Throughout the whole save, Liam pitched to either the game-tying run or game-winning run.

With the bases loaded and two outs, the struggling Nicky López came up to bat. He concluded his 3.82 LI at-bat with a fly out to Tim Anderson, right behind second base.

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Pressure Cooker

Ryan O’Hearn was locked in tonight’s pressure cooker, packing the most pressure in the game into just one at-bat. With runners on first and second with one out in the ninth, Ryan struck out swinging, to total 2.75 pLI for the night.

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Top Play

Top of the fifth, Zack Collins sent a pitch flying over the center-field wall for a solo shot (.144 WPA). It gave the White Sox a 1-0 lead at the time, and it broke Keller’s no-hit bid.

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Top Performer

Without a doubt, Carlos Rodón is tonight’s top performer! He is pitching out of his mind, as he accumulated a .349 WPA. The second-highest WPA was Salvador Pérez’s .148. Speaking of Salvy, he quietly went 4-for-4 tonight.

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Smackdown

Hardest hit: For his fourth hit of the night, Salvy Pérez smoked a 112.9 mph double off of Hendriks in the ninth.

Weakest contact: Uncharacteristically of Carlos Santana, his 28.5 mph ground out off of Aaron Bummer would be too fast for a school zone, but was incredibly slow for a baseball game.

Luckiest hit: Andrew Benintendi’s 48.4 mph single off of Bummer in the eighth had a .160 xBA.

Toughest out: José Abreu’s 103.7 mph fly out against Ervin Santana in the eighth had an xBA of .930. Unfortunately, Pito found himself in the unlucky 7% on that batted ball.

Longest hit: The only home run of the game went 430 feet, leaving Zack Collins’s bat at 106.5 mph. Even with that distance, that home run only had a .980 xBA. Collins could not beat Yermín Mercedes’s 485-foot home run off of the same Brad Keller for a 1.000 xBA.

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Magic Number: 19

White Sox starters have gone 19 straight innings without giving up a run, which dates back to Dylan Cease on May 4 against Cincinnati.

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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

obnoxious american stayed obnoxious, to the tune of a gamethread-high 40 comments of 287.

and wissoxfan83 lit this colorful critique of the home-plate ump and his first-inning flatulent call against Timmie for a gamethread-high six greens: