Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 3, Angels 0

The Chicago White Sox picked up their ninth win of the season, blanking the Los Angeles Angels to close the series. The White Sox move to 9-13 and sit four games back of the first-place Twins in the AL Central. AL West-leading Angels move to 15-9, and are two games ahead of the second place Mariners.

The Starters

Patrick Sandoval started for the Angels, going six innings, and giving up three earned runs on six hits and three walks while striking out two batters.

Sandoval used a five-pitch arsenal in his 96-pitch outing. He threw his top-three pitches 85 times. Sandoval saw the most CSW success with his changeup, generating a 38% CSW rate. While losing two inches of vertical break on the pitch, he gained 21 rpm of spin.

Of his three most-used pitches, Sandoval gained velocity on his changeup and slider while losing speed on his 4-seamer.

Baseball Savant

Dylan Cease started for the White Sox and went seven scoreless innings, giving up one hit while striking out 11 batters.

Cease used a four-pitch arsenal in his 93-pitch outing. He used his 4-seamer 46 times, just less than half of his pitches. Cease saw the most CSW success with his changeup, generating two called strikes from his three thrown.

While Cease lost vertical break on three of his four pitches, he gained spin on all four. Cease also gained velocity on everything except his changeup.

Baseball Savant

Pressure Play

With one out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the first, White Sox third baseman Jake Burger hit a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Luis Robert. The plate appearance had an LI of 2.2, making it the game’s highest-pressure play.

Pressure Cooker

Angels shortstop Andrew Velazquez had a 1.28 pLI in his two at-bats, the most of any player in the game.

Top Play

In the second White Sox at bat of the game following a Tim Anderson leadoff hit, center fielder Luis Robert hit a line drive single to left field before advancing on an error to give Chicago two runners in scoring position. The base hit added .106 WPA for the White Sox, the only play of the game that produced more than .100 WPA.

Top Performer

Dylan Cease added .354 WPA for the White Sox in his 11-strikeout start, more than .200 higher than the closest challenger in the game.

Smackdown

Luckiest hit: Tim Anderson’s leadoff single in the bottom of the first had an xBA of .360, making it the game’s luckiest hit.

Toughest out: Anderson had the game’s luckiest hit and the toughest out. His .700 xBA fly out in the bottom of the fifth was one of three barrel outs the White Sox had in the game.

Hardest hit: Luis Robert’s single in the bottom of the first had an exit velocity of 104.8 mph, the hardest-hit ball in the game.

Weakest contact: In the top of the fourth, Angels first baseman Jared Walsh hit a 56.9 mph ground out, the lowest exit velocity in the game.

Longest hit: Josh Harrison’s 382-foot fly out in the bottom of the second inning was the game’s farthest-hit ball.

Magic Numbers: 10 and 0

Today was the first game in Dylan Cease’s career where he had 10 or more strikeouts without walking anybody. Cease had two starts in 2021 with nine strikeouts and zero walks.

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