Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 3, Brewers 1

The White Sox avoided a sweep in Milwaukee with a 3-1 win against the Brewers. After dropping the first two games, Chicago (59-40) has a nine-game lead in the AL Central. The Brewers (58-42) find themselves 6.5 games ahead of the second-place Reds in the NL Central.

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The Starters

Lance Lynn got the win in a quality start. The righthander went for six innings, giving up one earned run off of six hits and no walks while striking out six.

Lynn relied mostly on his 4-seamer and his cutter, with the two pitches making up 80 of his total 98. He generated the most swings-and-misses with his cutter, getting Brewers hitters to whiff on 32% of his cutters. While not getting many whiffs on his 4-seamer, Lynn was able to get 13 called strikes on the pitch with an erratic Dan Iassogna strikezone.

Baseball Savant

Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff got the loss despite also pitching a quality start. Woodruff went for seven innings, giving up three earned runs on five hits and two walks. His game xFIP of 2.46 was lower than Lance Lynn’s game xFIP of 3.24.

The sinker, curveball, and 4-seam fastball were Woodruff’s three main pitches. Woodruff generated a 45% CSW rate, 14 percentage points higher than his season CSW% of 31.0. He had more than 10 called strikes and whiffs on all three of his main pitches and had at least two called strikes and whiffs on all five pitches in his arsenal.

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

Michael Kopech and Liam Hendriks found themselves in high-leverage situations between the seventh and ninth innings. With runners on first and second with one out in the bottom of the seventh, Kopech got Milwaukee leadoff hitter Kolten Wong to fly out to left field. The plate appearance had a 3.61 LI, the highest of any plate appearance.

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Pressure Cooker

Luis Urias had just one trip to the plate pinch-hitting in the ninth spot. Urias struck out against White Sox reliever Liam Hendricks with one out and a runner on first in the bottom of the ninth. The plate appearance put his game pLI at 2.61, the most pressure any player faced.

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Top Play

In his first at-bat of the season, Lance Lynn delivered with a single to right field that scored two White Sox runs, making the score 3-1. Those two RBIs were the last two runs plated in the game by Chicago. The at-bat had a .151 WPA, the highest on an individual play.

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Top Performer

Liam Hendriks recorded his second two-inning save of the season, giving up one hit and getting three strikeouts. His two innings of work provided .260 WPA for the White Sox, the most accumulated by any player.

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Smackdown

Luckiest hit: In the bottom of the sixth inning, Brewers shortstop Willy Adames reached first on a 56.7 mph grounder to Tim Anderson with a .080 xBA. Initially ruled an error, the play was later changed to a hit, making it the game’s luckiest base hit. Adames had a live microphone for the ESPN broadcast, and was delighted to break out of a slump.

Toughest out: After strong performances in the first two games of the series, Brewers right fielder went 2-for-4 with three hard-hit balls while scoring Milwaukee’s lone run. Taylor could have been 3-for-4 if it wasn’t for a hard-hit lineout in the bottom of the seventh that had a .820 xBA.

Hardest hit: Hitting eighth in the Brewers lineup, Jackie Bradley Jr barreled a double in the bottom of the seventh. Bradley hit the ball 108 mph, the hardest-hit ball of the night.

Weakest contact: In the bottom of the fourth, White Sox catcher Seby Zavala hit a 54.6 mph groundout. The ground ball had the slowest exit velocity of any batted ball during the game.

Longest hit: Bradley hit two doubles during the game. His other two-bagger was hit 381 feet to centerfield during the bottom of the fifth. No baseball traveled further during the night.

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Magic Number: 15

The White Sox had gone 15 years without seeing a pitcher record the win and bat in at least two runs before Lance Lynn’s performance today. On June 18, 2006, White Sox starter Jon Garland hit a two-run home run off of Reds starter Aaron Harang at Great American Ball Park while throwing eight innings in an 8-1 win for Chicago. Like Garland, it only took Lynn one plate appearance to record two RBI, and his six-inning performance puts him in a unique spot in White Sox history.

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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

Sunday Night Baseball helped (?) generate a 372-comment gamethread, another big battle between AnoHito and Nello. Ano again prevailed.

Pointerbabe has found a new niche, among several as a stalwart SSSer. Tonight, the only green was generated with her response to NothinbutNets7, who, it must be said, does bring the dour: