Six Pack of Stats: Royals 3, White Sox 2

The Kansas City Royals tied the game in the ninth and walked it off in the 10th against our Chicago White Sox, and they take a 2-1 series lead heading into tomorrow’s finale.

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The Starters

Lucas Giolito recorded a quality start through six-plus innings. Giving up only four hits, one walk, and one run — Gio was slicing and dicing today. With big thanks to his slider, Gio crafted a dominant start. He struck out seven and only threw 80 pitches. In a 2-1 game, with a runner on third with no one out, Gio left for Aaron Bummer, who recorded two strikeouts and a ground out to escape the jam and keep the Sox on top.

Gio’s slider can be further analyzed below:

Baseball Savant

Kris Bubic notched the third-straight quality start for the Royals in this series. Through six-plus innings, Kris gave up five hits, two runs, and one walk while striking out three. Mike Minor and Bubic are very susceptible to this very good lefty-hitting White Sox team, but KC’s arms have done well this series.

Bubic’s 89 pitches can be charted like so:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

With a runner on third and one out in the 10th, Ryan Burr induced a 4.58 LI ground ball off the bat of Hunter Dozier. Tim Anderson shot the ball home to Seby Zavala to keep the game tied, keeping the game alive for just one more batter.

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Pressure Cooker

With two on and two outs in the top of the 10th, Brian Goodwin came on to pinch-hit, and he failed to extend the inning under 4.52 pLI pressure.

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Top Play

Salvador Perez’s game-tying home run in the ninth gave the Royals a .464 WPA play, which eventually led to their victory.

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Top Performer

Perez’s 2-for-4 night with two runs scored gave him a .580 WPA and absolutely grants him tonight’s top performer award, though I wish it were a South Sider.

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Smackdown

Hardest hit: Tim Anderson’s 103.6 mph line out against Bubic in the fifth, which ended the inning, stood as the hardest hit of the game until Salvador Perez launched the game-tying home run in the ninth at an exit velocity of 109.1 mph.

Weakest contact: Ryan O’Hearn’s 45.8 mph single in the fifth ... you know ... the one that ruined Giolito’s very early run at a no-hitter. However, as extras will say, Hanser Alberto’s sac bunt in the 10th exited his bat at 37.0 mph, making it the weakest contact of the game.

Luckiest hit: After making a fantastic catch in the fifth ...

... Andrew Vaughn was unable to secure a Salvador Perez fly ball in the seventh for an out. Instead, it was scored as a .060 xBA double for Perez. (However, Vaughn is still going to win the Gold Glove in left field.)

Toughest out: Anderson’s liner to conclude the top of the fifth inning typically falls for a hit 68% of the time.

Longest hit: Jorge Soler’s double to drive Giolito out of the game traveled 375 feet, just shy of leaving the park in left field.

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Magic Number: 36

As prefaced, Giolito was rocking with his tertiary pitch: the slider. However, it was today’s secondary pitch, being tossed 36% of Gio’s pitch total compared to his changeup’s 23%. Giolito was already dangerous with his fastball-changeup combo, but this slider adds a whole new layer, with some sprinkles on top (his curveball).

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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

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It was a 291-comment night, and AnoHito just ran away with it.

A ton of comments and recs, but just one crossed the threshold into green, from Baboo: