Six Pack of Stats: Blue Jays 6, White Sox 2

Domino Effect: An ump throwing a bat at José Abreu -> replay review calling a clearly-safe Yaz out at the plate -> pitches several inches out of the zone called for strikes, and pitches in the zone called balls -> Nick Madrigal exits with hamstring tightness -> an overthrown double-play ball loses the lead -> unlucky breaks and a collapsed bullpen -> ultimately, a Chicago White Sox loss and Toronto Blue Jays win.

This game had everything go wrong, and I was simply not a fan.

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The Starters

Lance Lynn! It seems as if I cover every one of his games, and I am not complaining. He notched another dazzling quality start, going seven innings, giving up a solo shot for the only run he allowed, and three additional hits. He gave up zero walks and struck out nine. He is simply cruising.

His magnificent, 95-pitch performance breaks down like this:

Baseball Savant

Alek Manoah went five innings, where he gave up four hits and “three” runs (one earned, one unearned, and one called “out” at the plate, even under replay review). His control was pretty solid tonight, as he only walked two and struck out four.

His 90-pitch outing breaks down like so:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

With the bases loaded in the seventh, Aaron Bummer walked Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (5.95 LI), tying the game, 2-2.

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Pressure Cooker

Without question, the pitcher given the loss for this game faced the most pressure at 3.45 pLI. Aaron Bummer has had several unfortunate, unlucky breaks this season. As he said postgame, “s*#& happens.”

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Top Play

Sticking with pattern, the pressure play often leads to the top play for the opposing team. Vladdy’s bases-loaded walk created a .203 WPA.

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Top Performer

With the next-closest WPA at .162 for Tim Anderson, Lance Lynn sweeps both teams with his .345 WPA. It hurts to see a gem of a game end so disastrously, and I would have loved for Lynn to pitch at least part of the eighth.

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Smackdown

Hardest hit: There was hard contact throughout the night (and hard misses, cough replay cough). Bo Bichette’s 109.3 mph ground out in the sixth was the hardest out; the hardest hit belongs to Andrew Vaughn’s 108.0 mph single in the fourth. You know, the one that should have had an RBI attached with it.

Though there is no recorded exit velo on it, the ump did throw a bat at José Abreu in the first inning, which caused Pito to stay down for a bit. He ended up being OK, but let’s watch where we throw bats, blue, mmkay?

Weakest contact: Marcus Semien’s peculiar 60.9 mph single off of Aaron Bummer in the eighth goes for tonight’s weakest hit. That 61 mph went straight into the ground and elevated high above the infield for a single.

Luckiest hit: Semien’s weak contact also goes for tonight’s luckiest hit, at .250 xBA.

Toughest out: Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s 107.1 mph line out in the third is a hit 71% of the time; Vlad saw the 29%.

Longest hit: Randal Grichuk, hater of Tim Anderson’s famous bat spike, recorded a 451-foot solo home run in the second inning.

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Magic Number: 4

The White Sox committed four errors during tonight’s ball game, and the errors definitely cost them the game — unlike all those errors the Tigers committed against the Sox earlier in the season that didn’t manage to cost them the dub. Don’t worry; I’m over it, just like the 2016 game against the Royals where the Sox were leading 7-1 with one out in the ninth. See? Over it.

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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

A whopping 292 comments, and (maybe for the first time? I don’t recall) Pointerbabe gets the win, by a comfortable margin!

The only green tonight goes to seven11, with two recs, including this insightful ump commentary: