Six Pack of Stats: Blue Jays 3, White Sox 1

Happy anniversary to the Lucas Giolio no-hitter!

The Chicago White Sox looked to take control of the series with our northern neighbors, the Toronto Blue Jays. Tim Anderson was finally back in the lineup, Yoán Moncada’s hit streak was still intact, and Gio had a pretty good outing. Unfortunately, the White Sox were no match for Robbie Ray.

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The Starters

After three dazzling starts, Lucas Giolito took the mound on the anniversary of his no-hitter. Gio’s fastball and changeup dominated the Blue Jays. While it wasn’t lightning in a bottle, the 11 whiffs on his changeup and six strikeouts in six innings make me feel like this version of Gio is back for good.

Giolito’s 93-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Robbie Ray, known for his extra-tight pants and his great year thus far, faced off against the White Sox. Ray brought his A-game tonight with seven innings pitched and 14 strikeouts. Ray dominated with the fastball, raking up 13 of his 14 strikeouts with it.

Ray’s 111-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

Aaron Bummer was not having a great time as he came in for relief. The Blue Jays started to rally in the eighth with two outs. The pressure was amplified when Alejandro Kirk singled to center. Teóscar Hernández scored and Breyvic Valera advanced to second. The LI was 3.46.

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Pressure Cooker

Alejandro Kirk faced a lot of pressure with his sixth-inning out, and once again as he helped secure a win for the Blue Jays. His pLI was 2.06.

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Top Play

Known thorn in our side Alejandro Kirk had the top play, as mentioned above in the pressure play. We don’t have to go over this again. His WPA was .264.

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Top Performer

Robbie Ray kept the score nice and tight for the seven innings pitched. He handed the Blue Jays an easy win with a WPA of 0.34.

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Smackdown

Hardest hit: José Abreu’s first-inning single left the bat at 109.2 mph.

Weakest contact: Yoán Moncada lightly tapped the ball with this third-inning single. The ball was only hit at 57.4 mph but Moncada still made it to first base and brought Leury García home.

Luckiest hit: César Hernández singled to third on a grounder in the seventh inning. What would normally be a routine play was botched by the Blue Jays. The xBA was only .110.

Toughest out: Alejandro Kirk grounded out to short in the sixth inning with an xBA of .740. Unfortunately, he was able to exact revenge during his next at-bat.

Longest hit: Alejandro Kirk hit with force in the fourth inning, with the ball traveling 360 feet. Thankfully for the Sox, it was a line out to center so no additional damage was done with a runner on third and a tied game.

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Magic Number: 55

Carlos Rodón will be starting tomorrow per Tony La Russa. That’s my silver lining tonight.

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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

It was a 281-comment thread tonight, taken fairly handily by Nello Rubio.

Just two doses of green tonight but Uribe Down stays hot with another rec winner, with five: