Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 3, Athletics 2

The Chicago White Sox take the third straight game against the Oakland Athletics, securing a series victory and setting up the sweep for tomorrow afternoon’s game! The bullpen is lethal, people!

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The Starters

Lance Lynn’s outing was shortened today, and not because of a bad performance. After the fourth inning, from the TV perspective, the ump wanted to check Lynn’s belt, when Lynn was already in the dugout. So, Lynn took off his belt, threw it over the rails onto the field, and was immediately tossed.

Through four innings of baseball, Lynn gave up three hits and one run (a solo shot in the fourth). He did begin the game with a lack of control, as he gave up three walks, but did end up striking out four batters.

With this pitch count, Lynn wasn’t much longer for the game, anyway; his 88 pitches looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Paul Blackburn, in his first start of the season, did not leave in the same fashion as Lance Lynn. Overall, he was not too shabby. In 5 ¹⁄₃ innings, Paul gave up five hits, three runs, three walks, and struck out three.

His 75-pitch night went like this:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

With two on and one out, Liam Hendriks entered the eighth inning looking for the five-out save. He forced a 4.65 LI ground out to first followed by a 5.04 LI fly out to center to keep the one-run lead.

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Pressure Cooker

Hendriks, by far, faced the most pressure, with 3.23 pLI fueling a successful five-out save.

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Top Play

Luis Robert’s second RBI single of the evening gave the Sox a .145 WPA play, as it was the game-winning run all the way in the fourth inning.

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Top Performer

Recording the five toughest outs of the game, Hendriks provided a .376 WPA, guaranteeing a South Side dub!

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Smackdown

Hardest hit: Eloy Jiménez was ready right out of the gate. His 111.9 mph RBI double opened up the scoring in the first inning.

Weakest contact: César Hernández, as he has been doing, bunted for a base hit in the first inning. His bunt single left the bat at 37.4 mph, and he would eventually score on a Eloy Jiménez double. Seby Zavala, however, thought it was not fair that César has hogged this category, so he recorded a 27.4 mph ground out to end the sixth.

Luckiest hit: So, César will take the luckiest hit for the night, as his bunt single had a .140 xBA.

Toughest out: Starling Marte reached base on a field error in the third, so he kind of worked his .640 xBA to his advantage.

Longest hit: Yan Gomes’ fly out in the sixth off of Garrett Crochet went for 393 feet before it found Luis Robert’s glove.

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Magic Number: 5

Liam Hendriks recorded a five-out save, and officially back from his Field of Dreams save dilemma/tipping pitches to the Yankees.

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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

Wow, 220 comments that ends in a squeaka! Several competitors had a show at the crown, but AnoHito stood at the top of the mountain.

BillyK0ch had the only green tonight, including this harbinger of things to come!