Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 3, Tigers 0

Billy Hamilton is out, Adam Engel has returned. My emotions? Scattered.

Random tidbit: according to James Fegan, the starting lineup reads YYYAAA.

No matter, today the Chicago White Sox buckled in and finished this four-game series with a win against the Detroit Tigers.

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The Starters

Dylan Cease bounced back from his worst outing of the year with seven innings in an unusually-efficient 99 pitches, which gave the bullpen a chance to rest. With only five hits allowed, one walk and 10 strikeouts, he earned his fourth win of the season.

His knuckle-curve was an interesting pitch today, thrown faster and with more spin, fooling Tigers in tandem with his slider.

Cease’s 99-pitch outing looked like this:

José Ureña was just activated from the IL after forearm tightness, and while his velocity was consistent, he wasn’t fooling any White Sox with swings-and-misses, just three all game.

Ureña’s 87-pitch outing looked like this:

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Pressure Play

Tim Anderson’s second-inning single to center sealed the win for the White Sox, as Andrew Vaughn and Nick Madrigal scored. I know spaghetti is for home runs, but perhaps Bria will make an exception tonight. Anderson’s hit topped the charts at 1.76 LI.

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Pressure Cooker

Tigers shortstop Niko Goodrum faced the most pressure today, with many opportunities to stop the White Sox or jump-start Detroit’s offense. His pLI was the highest in today’s game, at 1.09.

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Top Play

Anderson also had the top play, as his single to center put the White Sox in position to walk away with the win. Anderson’s WPA for the the single that brought two home was .147.

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Top Performer

Dylan Cease gets top marks for today’s shutout effort against the Tigers. As noted above, his 10 strikeouts, one walk and zero runs allowed the White Sox to come out on top with minimal need for insurance runs. His WPA for the game was .324.

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Smackdown

Hardest hit: Yasmani Grandal’s eighth-inning line out was the hardest hit, leaving the bat at 109.1 mph.

Weakest contact: Willi Castro’s ground out off of Cease in the seventh inning was the weakest hit ball, leaving the bat at 60.1 mph.

Luckiest hit: Adam Eaton’s second-inning triple had an xBA of .120. The triple kick-started the White Sox offense, putting him in scoring position for Andrew Vaughn’s subsequent single.

Toughest out: Grandal’s hard-hit line out that was was also the toughest out. The xBA for Grandal was .680.

Longest hit: Niko Goodrum tried. He really did. But his 405-foot, would-be homer was caught by the Man of Steal. Welcome back, Adam Engel. Your defensive prowess was deeply missed. Join me for a rewatch of the play that made my entire afternoon.

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Magic Number: 2,764

Congrats are in order to Tony La Russa as he earned his 2,764th career win, second-most of all-time. With today’s win, he passed John McGraw.

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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 lazy Sunday 101-comment thread, steely3000 prevailed in a close battle with AnoHito. It hasn’t been the first such battle, and won’t be the last.

Ano’s revenge came with the only green comment of the day, albeit draped in olive drab.