Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 9, Twins 5

What a game. The White Sox defeated the Twins in a doozy. Yoán Moncada has stayed hot the entire series and José Abreu continues to provide reasons on why he will be the next statue to grace Guaranteed Rate Field. In a game of multiple White Sox MVPs, I’d like to consider another: Tums and anxiety medication that really carried many fans from the sixth inning on.

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The Starters

A well-rested Dallas Keuchel went up against a struggling Bailey Ober. When compared to Ober’s outing, the bar was very low for Keuchel. In five innings, Keuchel was charged with two earned runs but managed to rack up six strikeouts. Ober also lasted five innings, but with only 66 pitches, he added three earned runs to his tab and a -.20 WPA for the Twins.

Keuchel’s 89-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Ober’s 66-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

With two on and only one out in the eighth, Andrew Vaughn emerged after sitting on the bench all evening to be the DH hero the White Sox needed. With a powerful single to center and some risky running by Adam Engel, the White Sox tied the game. The pressure was certainly on Vaughn and Engel’s legs, capping the LI meter at 5.22.

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Pressure Cooker

Hansel Robels faced the most pressure, as he was the unlucky reliever who had to pitch to Billy Hamilton and José Abreu in the eighth inning. His pLI against the two hitters was 2.69.

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Top Play

Like any good reigning MVP, José Abreu solidified the win with a three-run home run in the eighth inning. The WPA for Abreu was 2.66.

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Top Performer

While the Twins failed to produce in the ninth inning, Jorge Polanco gave the White Sox trouble late in the game with his home run to briefly take the lead. Polanco’s WPA was .33.

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Smackdown

Hardest hit: Yoán Moncada hit with power, as almost all of hits were well over 100 mph. However, reigning MVP José Abreu swooped in with his three-run home run in the eighth, crushing the ball at 107.9 mph — just half-a-mile harder than Moncada’s 107.4 mph double in the sixth inning.

Weakest contact: Josh Donaldson’s final hit that was lobbed to the glove of Moncada for a crazy throw to first for the out was the weakest-hit ball. It left the bat at 57.1 mph.

Luckiest hit: Luis Arráez’s single in the third inning ricocheted off of Keuchel, alerting Abreu to first, but the throw was rough and Arráez beat out the infield hit. The xBA was only .220.

Toughest out: Nelson Cruz had a chance to turn it around for the Twins in the seventh inning, with an xBA of .880. His at-bat ended with a line out to end the inning, and Michael Kopech celebrating Billy Goodwin’s insane diving catch.

Longest hit: Josh Donaldson’s sixth inning leadoff home run traveled 435 feet. But according to someone picked up on the broadcast last night, he hates puppies.

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Magic Number: 6

Congrats to South Side Sox writers and Milwaukee Bucks fans Ashley Sanders and Janice Scurio. The Milwaukee Bucks winning the NBA title in six games came true for them, right as the White Sox game was wrapping up.

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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

AnoHito prevailed easily in this 364-comment gamethread, but Nello Rubio continues to be a recent force in the comments.

A nice smattering of green tonight, often in response to Twins hate, as the good lord intended. Tops, with six recs, was obnoxious american, with some straight truth: