Six Pack of Stats: Yankees 5, White Sox 3

It’s a good thing the Chicago White Sox won the Field of Dreams game. The New York Yankees came into Chicago for revenge, and that they had. They set the tone early in today’s game and never faltered. Hopefully, a potential postseason matchup between these two teams have a slightly different outcome.

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The Starters

Lucas Giolito had a rocky start to begin this game. A 10+ pitch at-bat to Brett Gardner in the first trickled into a second inning, where Lucas was still trying to find his rhythm. He ultimately gave up all three runs in the second inning and only pitched four total. He gave up six hits, three walks, but struck out eight.

Coming in, he had given up one earned run in four of his last five starts. Today’s start is not to concern anyone. The only concern is that he threw 101 pitches in four innings.

Those 101 pitches break down below:

Baseball Savant

Nestor Cortes, on the other hand, was straight dealing. In his quality start, he pitched seven innings of one-run baseball, only a solo shot was given up to Andrew Vaughn in the sixth. Additionally, he only walked one while striking out seven.

His very efficient 98-pitch afternoon can be summarized below:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

Trailing 5-2 with one out and the bases loaded during the bottom of the ninth, César Hernández went first-pitch hunting and grounded into a 4.78 LI game-ending double play.

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Pressure Cooker

Wandy Peralta was responsible for inducing that concluding double play. He faced a 3.76 pLI, but he got the job done for his team, as he recorded the two-out save.

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Top Play

To open today’s scoring, Rougned Odor recorded a two-run home run in the fatal second inning for Lucas Giolito. This became a .162 WPA play and would stay as the winning run.

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Top Performer

Nestor Cortes, with an incredible start, gave his team a .228 WPA, and the Yankees took that and ran with it for today’s victory.

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Smackdown

Hardest hit: Andrew Vaughn’s sixth inning blast to bring the score within two, at 3-1, rocketed the baseball 107.6 mph to the left field bleachers.

Weakest contact: On a bunt ground out in the first, César Hernández saw the baseball leave his bat at 30.1 mph.

Luckiest hit: Tim Anderson’s single against Cortes in the fifth only had a 14% chance to be a base hit.

Toughest out: The first contact made in today’s game was courtesy of D.J. LeMahieu, and luckily for the Sox, this 100.7 mph, .780 xBA batted baseball went for a line out to open the game.

Longest hit: Vaughn’s home run traveled 409 feet.

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Magic Number: 33 to 19

Lucas Giolito, in a rare occasion, threw his slider 33 times to only throwing his change up 19 times. Whether it was for gameplan or a lack of feel, his work-in-progress slider is still just that. The goal is for a much more lethal one in one-and-a-half month’s time.

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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

The gamethread was a little flat, perhaps anticipating the series loss. In a 263-comment thread, the battle came down to Nello Rubio and AnoHito, with Nello prevailing.

Just two comments went green today, so it’s a shared title for Billy K0ch and RSWS: