Six Pack of Stats: Pirates 6, White Sox 3

The White Sox (43-30) hoped that getting out of Houston would result in an immediate end to their losing streak. Unfortunately, despite a quality start from Lucas Giolito, the South Siders could not beat the Pirates (26-45), so they have lost five in a row.

This is their longest losing streak of the season.

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The Starters

Giolito cruised through the first two innings before allowing a solo home run to potential White Sox trade target Adam Frazier. That occurred on the 10th pitch of the at-bat, as Frazier had some excellent plate appearances tonight.

In the sixth, Frazier drew a walk on seven pitches, and he later scored on a single by Bryan Reynolds. However, that was the only damage the Pirates did against Giolito. That resulted in a stat line that turned out to be solid: six innings, two runs (both earned), four hits, two walks, and seven strikeouts.

Here is a closer look at Giolito’s 111-pitch performance:

Baseball Savant

Though Giolito had a quality start, Tyler Anderson outpitched Giolito for most of the game. The White Sox struggled to threaten to score, and when they did, they typically came up empty-handed. In fact, the only time the White Sox scored all night was during Anderson’s last inning on the mound.

At one point, Anderson retired 11 White Sox in a row. Unfortunately for him, that streak ended with one out in the seventh, when José Abreu singled to start a rally. Then, Leury García singled, and Yasmani hit a massive, three-run homer as a pinch-hitter. What started as a terrific outing for Anderson ended on a very low note.

Here is how Anderson’s 86-pitch performance shaped up:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

When Kevin Newman stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the seventh, the Pirates trailed by a score of 3-2. They had runners on first and second with no outs after back-to-back singles to open the inning. Newman had a big opportunity (3.81 LI), and his bunt worked out as well as it could have. Newman beat out a well-placed bunt, and Moncada made a throwing error, so Pittsburgh tied the game.

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Pressure Cooker

On average, White Sox reliever Garrett Crochet faced the most high-pressure situations out of any player in this game, with a pLI of 2.68. Crochet inherited a 3-2 lead with nobody on and no outs in the bottom of the seventh.

Unfortunately, nothing went Crochet’s way tonight, as all four of the batters he faced got hits and eventually came around to score.

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Top Play

Yasmani Grandal entered the game as a pinch-hitter in a high-leverage situation, and he delivered. His go-ahead, three-run homer takes the cake, as it increased Chicago’s odds of winning the game by 48.1% (.481 WPA).

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Top Performer

Yasmani Grandal, who entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the seventh, is today’s top performer in terms of WPA. Largely thanks to his pinch-hit home run, Grandal had a mammoth WPA of .472.

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Smackdown

Hardest hit: In the eighth inning, Kevin Newman smacked a grounder (109.4 mph exit velocity), but the launch angle worked against him, and resulted in a ground out. Honorable mentions go to Bryan Reynolds, who hit a single very sharply (107.2 mph), José Abreu (106.4 mph single), Gregory Polanco (106.3 mph single), and of course, Lucas Giolito (105.6 mph single). This was the night of the hard-hit singles.

Weakest contact: Kevin Newman’s bunt single in the seventh left the bat at 21.4 mph, which easily takes the cake for weakest contact. If we exclude bunts, though, the distinction goes to Andrew Vaughn’s second inning ground out (52.4 mph exit velocity).

Luckiest hit: In the fifth, Phillip Evans singled on a ball that had an xBA of only .180.

Toughest out: The line out by Evans in the fifth inning was very well-struck (105.5 mph exit velocity, 13-degree launch angle) and had an xBA of .790, but this time Andrew Vaughn made a nice catch in left field. Evans had both very good luck and some very bad luck tonight.

Longest hit: Yasmani Grandal’s pinch-hit home run to center field traveled 409 feet.

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Magic Number: 2.2

The White Sox have only scored 11 runs during their five-game losing streak, an average of 2.2 runs per game. This is a result of quite a few of their hitters slumping at the same time. That is a trend that will need to change if the White Sox are to preserve their slim division lead.

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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

If only big gamethreads could guarantee a win. We bounced back from a light (and depressing) weekend with 211 comments. steely3000 was the runaway winner.

Top rec is a tie between KP and horror1967, the only green of the night, and just barely: