Six Pack of Stats: Twins 6. White Sox 4

Byron Buxton and the Minnesota Twins swept the Chicago White Sox this Sunday afternoon.

The Starters

After missing two starts this season on a short IL stint, Lucas Giolito took the mound in this afternoon’s game to put a stop to all this White Sox losing, and he gave them the chance the team needed.

In his four-inning outing, Giolito’s control struggled in the early going, as he did give up four hits and three walks. However, when he needed to be good, he was great. Only giving up one run in a bases-loaded, nobody-out situation in the third inning, Giolito dazzled. Through the 12 outs he collected, nine (!) were strikeouts:

In total, Lucas threw 76 pitches and recorded a team-high 16 whiffs:

Baseball Savant

Yeah, he’s Luc-ace G-elite-o.

Chris Archer, who’s been bouncing around a few teams, started the game opposite of Lucas. In his three innings of work, Archer gave up three hits, three walks, and two runs. He did strike out two, but also gave up a home run on the first pitch of the game to Tim Anderson: Stick Talk!

Archer’s 61-pitch afternoon looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Pressure Play

José Godoy advanced to second base in the 10th inning off of a 7.10 LI wild pitch. You don’t see that every day!

Pressure Cooker

Liam Hendriks bridged the game to extras, but lost it so terribly in the 10th; he faced a game-high 4.19 pLI all told.

Top Play

Walk-offs tend to be very exciting and create top-play moments, and Byron Buxton’s .474 WPA blast did just that.

Top Performer

Tying the game late and winning the game in extras, Byron Buxton’s putting up early MVP numbers with today’s .761 WPA.

Smackdown

Hardest hit: Andrew Vaughn’s bases-loaded single in third left his bat at 109.6 mph, allowing a runner to score, but José Abreu — trying to steal a second run — was denied at the plate by a perfect Trevor Larnach throw. However, Byron Buxton put AV to shame with his 111.8 mph walk-off home run.

Weakest contact: Kendall Graveman made an incredible catch on José Godoy’s 22.9 mph bunt pop out in the eighth inning.

Luckiest hit: Though an out 98% of the time, Max Kepler decided to beat the shift for an infield single in the third.

Toughest out: Tim Anderson was hoping to add a second home run to his name today with a fly out to left-center field that leaves the park 79% of the time.

Longest hit: To walk off the game, Byron Buxton sent one to the moon, or at least the upper deck, at 469 feet.

Magic Number: 7

The White Sox, a championship-caliber team, have dropped seven straight games, including two AL Central division sweeps.

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