Six Pack of Stats: Padres 5, White Sox 2

On Saturday night, San Diego defeated Chicago, 5-2, at Petco Park. The Padres move to 87-71, two games ahead of the Phillies for the second NL wild card spot. The White Sox drop to 78-80, already eliminated from playoff contention and needing three wins in the final four games to end the season at .500.

The Starters

White Sox ace Dylan Cease went five innings in his final start of the season, giving up four runs on five hits, including two home runs.

Cease used four different pitches in his 104-pitch start, using his slider and 4-seamer a combined 88 times. Entering today with a 30.8% CSW rate on the season, Cease had an overall 25% CSW rate against the Padres.

Here’s the Statcast data for Cease:

Baseball Savant

Padres starter Mike Clevinger went six innings, giving up a lone run from a solo blast.

Clevinger used a five-pitch arsenal in his 66-pitch outing, using his slider 25 times. He had a 40% CSW rate with the pitch, generating eight called strikes. Clevinger gained spin on all five pitches.

Clevinger’s start looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Pressure Play

With two on, one out in a 1-1 tie in the top of the sixth, White Sox left fielder Mark Payton struck out looking.

The at bat had a game-high 2.93 LI.

Pressure Cooker

Payton totaled 1.6 pLI in his 0-for-3 night.

Top Play

With one on, nobody out in the bottom of the sixth and the game tied, 1-1, Padres second baseman Jake Cronenworth homered to put San Diego ahead, 3-1.

The two-run jack added .235 WPA for the Padres.

Top Performer

Clevinger’s .230 WPA narrowed out Cronenworth’s .220 WPA to lead all players.

Smackdown

Luckiest hit: Padres third baseman Manny Machado led off the sixth with a .110 xBA ground ball single to center.

Toughest out: Pinch-hitting in the top of the ninth, Adam Engel lined out on a 101.8 mph, .750 xBA batted ball.

Hardest hit: Leading off the game, Elvis Andrus took Mike Clevinger’s second pitch for a 107.6 mph ride into the seats.

Weakest contact: Padres DH Josh Bell singled on a 39.5 mph grounder back to the mound in the bottom of the seventh.

Longest hit: Andrus hit his homer 442 feet.

Magic Number: 4

Today was Cease’s fourth multi-homer start of 2022, and the first to occur on the road.

Cease last gave up two homers on August 28, against the Diamondbacks.

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