Six Pack of Stats: Rays 9, White Sox 0

The Chicago White Sox ended their weekend in Florida with a brutal loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.

This game had everything! Baseballs bouncing on bases, Gordon Beckham “Creedifying” the Nationwide jingle, fans freaking out because Tim Anderson is taking some preventative rest, and a balk! Unfortunately, it did not include any White Sox runs, as the Rays shut them down.

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The Starters

Reynaldo López got the start this afternoon against Chris Archer. ReyLo has had impressive outings since returning to Chicago. He was charged with three runs but managed to strike out four in his four innings. He gave up six hits in the 17 batters faced, but a handful were helped by balls bouncing off of bases and poor defense. While his outing wasn’t perfect, the White Sox looked lost at the plate and couldn’t support López.

López’s 75-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Chris Archer, who just recently returned after being out since April with forearm tightness, only lasted two innings before exiting the game with left hip tightness. Shawn Armstrong replaced Archer on the mound. Despite facing multiple pitchers with high ERAs, the White Sox still struggled to produce many hits.

Archer’s 41-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

With two on and two outs in the top of the sixth, Andrew Vaughn had a chance to be a hero and put the White Sox on the board. Instead, he struck out swinging. The LI for this at-bat was 1.98.

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Pressure Cooker

Adam Conley faced the most pressure as he pitched the fifth inning, only allowing one hit, to Danny Mendick. Conley’s pLI was 0.88.

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Top Play

Wander Franco’s third-inning double put the Rays on the board, as Yandy Díaz crossed home plate. The WPA for Franco’s double was .112.

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Top Performer

Austin Meadows was the star player toda,y going 3-for-4 with three RBIs at DH. His WPA was 0.15.

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Smackdown

Hardest hit: The Yandy Díaz single in the ninth inning was the hardest hit, leaving his bat at 106.7 mph.

Weakest contact: Brandon Lowe had the ~lowest~ exit velocity at 65.4 mph, with his fifth-inning line out.

Luckiest hit: Austin Meadows’ seventh-inning double that brought Wander Franco home had an xBA of only .100.

Toughest out: Eloy Jiménez’s seventh-inning at-bat led to a double play. However, it could easily have been the start of a much-needed rally ,with two on and an xBA of .770.

Longest hit: Wander Franco dominated the distance category with two of the three longest hits of the game. The longest hit was a third-inning double that traveled 410 ft.

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Magic Number: 9

Today’s loss was tough, so the only silver lining is Yoán Moncada has a nine-game hitting streak.

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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 the 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 modest 149 comments, and let’s be frank here: baines03 and steely3000 carried us today.

No shocker here, with a lightly-attended blowout, but the gamethread was green-free: