Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 9, Tigers 5

The Chicago White Sox picked up their 28th win of the season after defeating the Detroit Tigers, 9-5, on Monday. The White Sox improved to 28-31, and could close back to within five games of the AL Central-leading Twins, pending Minnesota’s finish. The Tigers drop to 24-36.

The Starters

Lance Lynn started for the White Sox, going 4 ¹⁄₃ innings and giving up three earned runs on 10 hits while striking out four batters.

Lynn used a six-pitch arsenal in his 88-pitch outing, using his 4-seamer a game-high 33 times. He saw the most success with his sinker, generating a 33% CSW rate. While losing 1.1 mph of velocity on the pitch, he gained more than 100 rpm of spin while maintaining vertical and horizontal break.

Lynn’s 88-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Rony García started for the Tigers, going four innings and giving up four earned runs on five hits and two walks while striking out three batters.

The spot starter used a four-pitch arsenal in his 75-pitch outing. He used his 4-seamer a 27 times. Despite losing both velocity and spin on the pitch, he gained two inches of vertical and horizontal break to generate a 33% CSW rate.

Rony’s 75-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Pressure Play

With two outs and runners on the corners in the bottom of the sixth, Tigers right fielder Austin Meadows grounded out to short to end the inning while representing the winning run.

The at-bat had an LI of 2.71, the most of any play during the game.

Pressure Cooker

Tigers reliever Will Vest had a game-high pLI of 1.79, a few tenths higher than teammate Jonathan Schoop’s 1.66 pLI.

Top Play

With two outs and a runner on third in the top of the first, White Sox first baseman José Abreu homered to break a scoreless tie and give Chicago a 2-0 lead. The home run added .178 WPA for the White Sox.

Top Performer

Abreu hit two home runs during his 3-for-4 night at the plate, amassing a game-high .238 WPA.

Smackdown

Luckiest hit: All three of White Sox second baseman Leury García’s hits had an xBA of less than .350. His luckiest hit was a ninth-inning, two-out double with a .190 xBA.

Toughest out: One of Leury’s two outs in his 3-for-5 day was the game’s unluckiest out. His 104.9 mph line out to center field had an xBA of .700. Baseball is a crazy game.

Hardest hit: With nobody out and a runner on in the top of the ninth, Abreu hit his second home run of the game to put the White Sox ahead, 9-5. His no-doubter flew off the bat at 111.3 mph.

Weakest contact: We don’t usually count bunts, but this one was too weird not to honor. The game’s weakest batted ball plated two White Sox runs. This 19.3 mph sac bunt from Reese McGuire led to a Detroit throwing error that put Chicago ahead, 6-3.

Longest hit: Abreu’s ninth inning home run traveled 444 feet, the ball getting buried in the center field shrubbery.

Magic Number: 1

José Abreu’s ninth-inning home run was the first no-doubt home run (1.000 xBA) by a White Sox player this season. It was also the first no-doubt home run hit at Comerica Park since 2020.

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