Six Pack of Stats: Astros 4, White Sox 3

The Houston Astros won both nationally-televised games this weekend to take the series from our Chicago White Sox.

The Starters

Michael Kopech, pitching through knee discomfort, had a rather OK evening, Through five innings, Kopech allowed seven hits (two of which were home runs), four runs, and a walk. He did strike out four, but his fastball averaged just 93.9 mph.

His 75-pitch evening looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Christian Javier also pitched five, and only Luis Robert squared him up for hard contact. Javier allowed two hits, one run, and walked four batters. Unfortunately, the Good Guys could not cash in most of those hits and walks for runs. Javier did strike out five.

His 93-pitch night breaks down like so:

Baseball Savant

Pressure Play

With the leadoff runner reaching base in the ninth, Ryan Pressly proceeded to strike out (4.65 LI) Adam Haseley for the first out.

Pressure Cooker

Ryan Pressly locked down the save after allowing a leadoff walk to Josh Harrison — a 3.48 pLI.

Top Play

Mauricio Dubón’s two-run home run (.147 WPA) in the fifth proved to be the game-winning runs.

Top Performer

Christian Javier’s .159 WPA takes the cake for tonight’s top performer. He allowed several scoring opportunities for the Sox, but immediately shut them down after offering the bait.

Smackdown

Hardest hit: Jason Castro tallied a 106-mph single in the fifth off of Michael Kopech.

Weakest contact: Luis Robert’s broken-bat single in the eighth left his bat at 50.7 mph.

Luckiest hit(s): JJ Matijevic’s first-career home run was flicked over the left-field wall. Minute Maid Park is the only stadium where this .210 xBA swing is a home run. Gotta play to your park! Mauricio Dubón followed with a .210 xBA home run in the fifth as well.

Toughest out: Luis Robert smoked a baseball to right-center field at 104 mph off the bat, but it was corralled at the warning track for an out (.860 xBA). However, Kyle Tucker’s fifth-inning fly out (103.6 mph, .920 xBA) just beats out Robert’s bad luck for a bit of worse luck.

Longest hit: Kyle Tucker’s fly out traveled 405 feet.

Magic Number: 20

The Good Guys left 20 collective runners on base.

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