Give me just a second.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
OK.
I hope you, dear reader, did that along with me, and it was at least a little cathartic. Let’s just dive into this White Sox game.
The Starters
Vince Velásquez certainly pitched today. The good news: he recorded six strikeouts. The bad: Well ... he allowed eight hits, five earned runs, and one walk. He put the White Sox in a terrible position, as if the cold bats were not enough. He only made it through 3 1⁄3 innings before being pulled. Bennett Sousa, unfortunately, didn’t do the White Sox any favors, either.
Velásquez’s 87-pitch outing looked like this:
Dylan Bundy swept the floor with the White Sox. In five innings, Bundy recorded four strikeouts and only allowed four hits, none of which translated into runs for the White Sox.
Bundy’s 79-pitch outing looked like this:
Pressure Play
In a whirlwind first inning, the bases were loaded for Jorge Polanco. Due to an error, Polanco reached on a fielder’s choice at shortstop, allowing Byron Buxton to score, advanced Luis Arráez to third and put Carlos Correa out at second. This play landed an LI of 2.19.
Pressure Cooker
Nearly every single White Sox player had a pLI of more than .50 today. Not great, friends. But Vince Velásquez went over the top, with a pLI of 0.86.
Top Play
Byron Buxton’s RBI double with two outs gave the Twins all the lead they would end up needing. In just the second inning, that RBI double gave Buxton a WPA of .100.
Top Performer
Dylan Bundy put the Twins in the best position to win, as he dismantled the White Sox. Bundy’s excellent outing gave him a WPA of 0.19. Byron Buxton getting on base multiple times helped. too, as his WPA was 0.17.
Smackdown
Hardest hit: Yasmani Grandal’s hard-hit double in the fourth inning had a powerful exit velocity of 108.4 mph.
Weakest contact: Trevor Larnach’s fourth-inning single barely left the bat, at 75.5 mph.
Luckiest hit: Larnach’s barely-hit single happened to also be the luckiest hit. The xBA for the safety was .130.
Toughest out: Nick Gordon had a promising swing that ended up lining out. The xBA for that fourth inning smash was .780.
Longest hit: Byron Buxton’s upper-deck home run traveled 407 feet.
Magic Number: 230
On a positive note, José Abreu now has 230 career home runs.
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
Poll
Who was your White Sox MVP?
This poll is closed
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37%
José Abreu: 1 HR, 2 RBIs
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3%
Yasmani Grandal: 1 BB, 1 H
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25%
You: reading this, and possibly watching the game
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34%
The family that kept catching foul balls
Poll
Who was your White Sox Cold Cat?
This poll is closed
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15%
Vince Velásquez: 5 ER, -0.27 WPA
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18%
The entire offense
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12%
Tony La Russa, Frank Menechino, Allen Thomas, Rick Hahn & Jerry Reinsdorf
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54%
All of the above
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