Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 8, Orioles 3

No disrespect to the Baltimore Orioles, but is there a possibility the Chicago White Sox can play them every day? What’s the news on realigning the divisions in the middle of the season?

All jokes aside, the South Siders have definitely needed this weekend series against the Orioles to regain their offensive momentum going into the All-Star break. Lucas Giolito is regaining his footing after a couple bumps this season (don’t worry, he is still Luc-ace G-elite-o to me), the bullpen remains dominant, and the ontime prospects, now-upcoming stars are raking!

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The Starters

Lucas Giolito had himself a decent outing against the Orioles. In 5 ¹⁄₃ innings, Giolito scattered six hits, two runs, and two walks. He did strike out nine. He left the game in the sixth with runners on the corners with one out; Ryan Burr came in as relief and did give up an RBI single, which was assigned to Giolito’s pitching line.

During a hot and humid day, Giolito’s 106 pitches (68 for strikes) further break down like this:

Baseball Savant

As for Gio’s opposition, Thomas Eshelman had a rather rough outing, especially after Jake Burger’s 104.5 mph single was driven right off of Eshelman to start the third inning. Eshelman would stay in the game for two more batters, but through two-plus innings, he gave up four hits (one including a Brian Goodwin solo home run), four runs, and three walks. He did record a single strikeout.

However, his 52-pitch afternoon looked like this:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

Tim Anderson’s ground-rule double in the third scored Jake Burger and advanced Zack Collins to third base at the time. The ball rocketed down the line and was just fair, but the Baltimore ball boy, out of straight reaction and preparation, fielded the ball as if it went foul. He made a heck of a trap, and with how loud stadiums are and how quickly the game moves, he should still be the ball boy for tomorrow’s game. The play recorded a 1.72 LI, but I’m sure it felt much worse for the ball boy. It’s all OK.

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Pressure Cooker

Coming in for Giolito, Ryan Burr faced runners on the corners in what was then a 6-1 White Sox ballgame. Even with a 1.12 pLI, Burr got out of the jam by only allowing one run to score throughout his 18 pitches thrown and two strikeouts recorded.

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Top Play

The same play as the pressure play fits here as well, as it accumulated a .119 WPA. I mean, hey, does the ball boy want to try out to be our second baseman?

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Top Performer

Matching the WPA of today’s top play, Lucas Giolito .119 was enough to steal today’s top performer nod. Giolito is supposed to out-pitch a bad team, and he did just that.

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Smackdown

Hardest hit: Jake Burger’s 110.5 mph fly out in the sixth (you know, the one that should have been a homer?) just slightly edged out José Abreu’s 110.2 mph double in the seventh for the hardest-hit ball of the afternoon.

Weakest contact: Billy Hamilton’s 61.0 mph, .000 xBA pop out in the ninth to close out the White Sox contact for the game could have happened in the first inning and still would have been the game’s weakest contact.

Luckiest hit: In the fourth inning, to properly offset his .990 xBA fly out later in the game, Jake Burger’s single recorded a .180 xBA.

Toughest out: Remember that Burger fly out now? It traveled 392 feet with a .990 xBA (!!!); that’s insane, and especially tough to see go for an out.

Longest hit: Goodwin’s solo shot in the second traveled the farthest of any baseball hit in the game at 392 feet.

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Magic Number: 54

It took them 13 years, but the South Siders have matched their 2008 first-half win total. If they earn the sweep tomorrow, they will break it at 55 wins.

(Anyone smelling a 100-win season? Too optimistic? Did you all see that Eloy Jiménez home run in Winston-Salem today? He’ll be here before we know it!)

(Also, is that a number 22 I see on his back!?)

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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

Just 142 comments would indicate a closer match, but AnoHito ran away with the most comments today.

A healthy amount of green in the gamethread, but only Schoolly_D earned four recs today: