Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 9, Tigers 8

The Chicago White Sox eked out a 9-8 win after a late Detroit Tigers comeback. The game started off as a pitcher’s duel, but quickly went south for the Tigers after Spencer Turnbull exited the game with an injury. Helped by three Detroit fielding errors in the fifth inning, the White Sox took a five-run lead facing two pitchers. Then some stuff happened ... Colleen Sullivan went into detail on the messy seventh inning. But the good guys came back, and an emotional Yermín Mercedes was there to walk it off.

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The Starters

Dallas Keuchel was on the mound tonight, facing a pretty decent Spencer Turnbull. Prior to tonight’s game, April 26 was the last time anyone homered off Turnbull. Yasmani Grandal broke that streak with his second-inning home run.

Keuchel has struggled a lot this season and was looking to bounce back and save the bullpen. The southpaw started off looking like his old self, striking out three with two scoreless innings on 22 pitches. His release point started dropping in the fifth inning as he reached 50 pitches. Before long he threw six straight balls, suddenly unable to throw a strike. The Tigers defense was thankfully able to back Keuchel, giving the White Sox some insurance runs.

Keuchel’s 80-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Turnbull had a better start, only throwing 10 pitches in the first inning. Despite his great start, he experienced right forearm tightness and was pulled prior to the fifth inning, to be replaced by Kyle Funkhouser. Perhaps Kyle was uh, in a funk as he was pulled after four runs, a walk for Yoán Moncada to load the bases with only one out with José Abreu on deck.

Turnbull’s 56-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

Liam Hendriks’ entrance in the top of the ninth inning is the obvious pick for this high-stakes game. Inheriting a bit of a jam from Garrett Crochet, Hendriks put the nail in the coffin for the Tigers, getting the final out. His LI reached 4.44.

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Pressure Cooker

Once again, the one-out save by Hendriks blew the top off with a pLI of 4.44. Someone get Rubi on the phone so she can verify that four is his lucky number.

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Top Play

Don’t shoot the messenger, I’m just here to report on game stats. Eric Haase’s home run in the seventh gave the Tigers a fighting chance in what had been a dominant performance from the White Sox. Haase topped the charts with a WPA of .406.

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Top Performer

Jonathan Schoop barely beat Grandal, coming in with a WPA of .43. Whatever. Grandal was still out of this world and finished with a WPA of .41. Top performer in my heart, at least.

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Smackdown

Hardest hit: Schoop’s home run off Keuchel in the sixth inning exited the bat at a whopping 111.2 mph and jump-started the Tigers comeback.

Weakest contact: Leury García’s sac bunt in the fifth inning had the weakest contact, coming off the bat at 30.7 mph.

Luckiest hit: The Tigers made a lot of mistakes in the fifth inning, one of those mistakes was a fielder’s choice allowing Adam Eaton to get on base despite having an xBA of .070.

Toughest out: Miguel Cabrera’s line out in the fourth inning off Keuchel was the toughest out in the game. With an exit velocity of 105.8 mph and an xBA of .860, I still question how that entire thing happened.

Longest hit: Unfortunately, Haase’s home run off Evan Marshall in the seventh inning went yard, reaching 427 feet. Grandal’s game-tying home run in the eighth inning was not far behind, reaching 413 feet.

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Magic Number: 13

I’ll let this tweet from the White Sox speak for itself.

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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

It was a very busy, 256-comment gamethread, but AnoHito took the crown rather easily.

In an old-school turn, South Side Expat sassed Uribe Down. And we liked it, to the tune of 10 recs and deep green: