Six Pack of Stats: Twins 3, White Sox 2

The White Sox face the pesky Twins twice today for an evening double header in Chicago. Game 1 started off great and ended with the Twins dismantling the defense, Garrett Crochet and Ryan Burr. José Abreu’s eighth inning RBI was not enough to win the game.

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The Starters

Newly extended Lance Lynn went up against the newest pitcher for the Twins, Griffin Jax. Lynn has been dominating, proving to be a powerful starting pitcher on a team stacked with talented pitching. Lynn lasted seven innings and nearly shut out the Twins.

Prior to today’s game, Jax was 1-1 in his two starts. Despite lasting only four innings and suffering from a possible blood blister, Jax only allowed one hit.

Lynn’s 89-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Jax’s 68-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

In a tense game from start to finish, Nelson Cruz faced the most pressure, with his eighth inning sac fly. The Twins sealed their win, as Gilberto Celestino scored. Cruz’s LI was 5.91.

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Pressure Cooker

Gavin Sheets had a chance to be a hero when the White Sox needed one. Sheets went to the plate as a pinch hitter in the eighth inning with Abreu in scoring position, but struck out swinging. His pLI was 4.91.

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Top Play

Cruz opened the gates, allowing the Twins to tie the game. His home run topped the charts with a WPA of .258.

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Top Performer

Lance Lynn was the top performer of the game. With just the one earned run, he tossed a great game. Lynn pitched seven innings and had four strikeouts. His ERA decreased to 1.94. Lynn’s WPA for today’s game was .36.

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Smackdown

Hardest hit: Cruz had the hardest hit, but it was somehow not his home run to tie the game. His ground out in the fourth inning came off the bat at 107.8 mph. Tim Anderson’s home run in the third inning came in close second, off the bat at 107.2 mph.

Weakest contact: Jorge Polanco’s single in the sixth inning from a bunt grounder to third left the bat at 25.2 mph.

Luckiest hit: Luis Arráez started the game with a lucky hit. His single off of Lynn in the first at-bat of the game had an xBA of .060.

Toughest out: Danny Mendick’s at-bat in the third should have allowed the White Sox to keep the inning alive with an xBA of .600, but made it into a glove and ended the inning instead.

Longest hit: Anderson’s third inning home run traveled 417 feet and earned him another spaghetti dinner.

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Magic Number: 70

While the White Sox were unable to produce a run, Abreu’s double that allowed Anderson to score in the eighth inning happened to be Abreu’s 70th RBI this season.

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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 healthy, 225-comment gamethread was a battle between steely3000 and AnoHito, with steely prevailing.

A fab eight recs for wissoxfan83, whose Josh Donaldson heckle made the broadcast!