Welcome back, White Sox fans! It certainly feels good to be back providing the stats. It’s been a long enough offseason, so let’s just rip the band-aid off for this not-so-pleasant Opening Day for your Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers.
The Starters
Lucas Giolito started off strong on the bump today, only allowing one hit and striking out six. However, he left after the fourth inning due to abdominal tightness on his left side. Bennett Sousa took the mound for a great outing ahead of what seemed to be a revolving bullpen door.
Giolito’s 61-pitch outing looked like this:
Eduardo Rodriguez got the start for the Motor City Kitties. The White Sox took advantage early on all five of his pitches. In his four innings pitched, Rodriguez gave up four hits and three runs, regrettably walking two and only striking out two.
Rodriguez’s 83-pitch outing looked like this:
Pressure Play
Liam Hendriks did not have a good outing at all. When Miguel Cabrera singled to center on a liner, Robbie Grossman and Austin Meadows were able to score. Javier Báez also advanced to third. Hendriks’ LI topped the charts at 6.14.
Pressure Cooker
Again, Liam Hendriks, facing the most pressure with his poor performance on the mound. His pLI was 3.67.
Top Play
Eric Haase would be the hero the Tigers needed today as he homered off Hendriks, tying the game for a Báez walk-off single in the ninth. His WPA was 0.45.
Top Performer
As mentioned above, Eric Haase secured the win for the Tigers when he tied the game in the bottom of the ninth. His WPA was .481.
Smackdown
Hardest hit: Jonathan Schoop’s seventh-inning ground out came off the bat at 110.9 mph.
Weakest contact: In a game of hard-hit balls, Yasmani Grandal had the weakest contact, in the fifth inning. His pop-out to second left the bat at 71.6 mph. What made the contact particularly aggravating was that pitcher Drew Hutchinson was on the ropes, with ducks on the pond, and Yaz got in a quick 0-2 hole and could not even drive a fly to score a run.
Luckiest hit: Our Burger King hit an unexpected double the other way off of Rodriguez in the second inning. Jake Burger’s xBA was still on the higher side, but it stands as the luckiest hit, at .250.
Toughest out: As the ball traveled 393 feet, it seemed as though Jeimer Candelario’s hit was going to travel out of the park. But his fourth-inning fly out was actually the most surprising out, with an xBA of .980.
Longest hit: Jeimer Candelario’s fly out in the fourth inning traveled 393 feet.
Magic Number: 1
Can we even go one day without the reminder that loving this team is often painful?
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 the White Sox MVP for today’s game?
This poll is closed
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62%
Lucas Giolito: 4 IP, 0 R, 6 Ks
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17%
Andrew Vaughn: 1 HR, 1 RBI, 0 Ks
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0%
Eloy Jiménez: 0 Ks, 1 RBI, 1 H
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20%
A.J. Pollock: 3 H, 1 R, 1 RBI
Poll
Who was your White Sox Cold Cat for today’s game?
This poll is closed
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58%
Liam Hendriks: -1.18 WPA, 4 H, 1 ER
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0%
José Abreu: Typical cold weather Abreu, 1 K, -0.01 WPA
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0%
Josh Harrison: 0-4, -0.07 WPA
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41%
Liam Hendriks, because I would like to vote for him twice.
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