Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 7, Astros 0

After a grueling loss and some harsh words on the site last night, the White Sox took our complaints to heart by shutting the Astros out on their home turf.

Johnny Cueto dazzled, the offense took advantage of an atypically weak Justin Verlander, and overall, Chicago looked sharp.

The Starters

Johnny Cueto pitched like the Cy Young candidate this afternoon, not Verlander. Cueto shut the Astros down each inning, only allowing two hits and two walks in seven innings. His performance on the mound was a breath of fresh air after last night’s blowout.

Cueto’s 93-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Justin Verlander’s start was likely just an anomaly, but that anomaly came right when the White Sox needed it. The righty only struck out three, and allowed nine hits and four earned runs. He was pulled early, as Dusty Baker didn’t want to leave his future Hall of Fame pitcher out to die on the mound.

Verlander’s 81-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Pressure Play

With bases loaded and only one out in the third, Luis Robert took full advantage of Justin Verlander’s bad day with a single that brought Seby Zavala and Danny Mendick home, and advanced Andrew Vaughn. The LI for this at-bat was 3.01.

Pressure Cooker

It’s likely not a shock to anyone that Justin Verlander faced the most pressure today. The White Sox teed off on the righty every chance they had in the 3 ²⁄₃ innings he pitched. Verlander’s pLI was 0.92.

Top Play

As mentioned above in the pressure play, Robert’s RBI single in the third gets top marks and put the White Sox in the win column. Robert’s WPA was .143.

Top Performer

Barely eclipsing Johnny Cueto, Luis Robert takes the prize for top performer today. While Cueto’s pitching certainly put the White Sox on the best path, Luis Robert went 3-for-5 today and helped four batters cross home plate. His WPA was .195.

Smackdown

Hardest hit: José Abreu all-but-obliterated the ball in the first inning. The call was a force-out, but contact was made at 108.3 mph.

Weakest contact: José Altuve managed to get one of the two hits off Johnny Cueto in the first despite only hitting the ball at 72.8 mph.

Luckiest hit: Alex Bregman’s single to third in the seventh inning only had an xBA of .140

Toughest out: Caught up in a first-inning double play, Michael Brantley had the toughest out, with his xBA of .630.

Longest hit: Seby Zavala’s seventh-inning fly out traveled 380 feet.

Magic Number: 2014

Today’s win was the first White Sox win over Justin Verlander since 2014.

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