Six Pack of Stats: Blue Jays 8, White Sox 3

The White Sox probably weren’t looking to get swept by the Blue Jays, but they probably didn’t think they’d be three games under .500 in June, either. Hopefully, a few players and coaches, and a lineup card, stay in Canada. Minnesota lost today though, and Cleveland hasn’t played yet, so there’s that!

The Starters

Johnny Cueto struck out five, didn’t allow a walk, and allowed seven hits in 84 pitches. Unfortunately, Cueto didn’t have any run support, and that likely isn’t a surprise when you take a look at the lineup.

Cueto’s 84-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Alek Manoah had a great outing against a pitiful White Sox offense, at least until he finally ran out of gas in the seventh inning and was charged with three earned runs. With a similar line to Cueto, Manoah struck out five, walked one, allowed six hits, and three earned runs.

Manoah’s 102-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Pressure Play

In a painful first inning, Yasmani Grandal struck out looking with the bases loaded and two outs. While one of the calls was terrible, and it should’ve been a 3-0 count, it wasn’t, and it shifted the momentum. Grandal’s LI was 2.82 as he stranded runners.

Pressure Cooker

Adam Cimber faced a lot of pressure as he came in for Manoah to try to extinguish the fires of a three-run seventh inning for the White Sox. While allowing one hit and facing two batters, Cimber was able to escape the inning unscathed. Cimber’s game pLI was 1.73.

Top Play

Santiago Espinal kept the Blue Jays on top with his fifth-inning double. And because the White Sox love to overthrow, Espinal got to third and Raimel Tapia scored. The WPA for Espinal was .124.

Top Performer

Alek Manoah clearly kept the White Sox out of this game early with great pitching and a team that actually gave him run support. Manoah’s WPA was .311.

Smackdown

Hardest hit: Alejandro Kirk’s fourth-inning double flew off the bat with haste, at 109.4 mph.

Weakest contact: Yoán Moncada’s single to center that pushed Luis Robert home in the eighth was lightly tapped, at 72.9 mph.

Luckiest hit: Leadoff hitter Leury García singled to third base and advanced Reese McGuire to second to continue an eighth-inning rally. The hit only had a .080 xBA.

Toughest out: Bo Bichette thought his 106 mph hit in the fifth was a goner, and so did Baseball Savant, as it had an xBA of .860. Bichette instead lined out to center.

Longest hit: Teoscar Hernández's sixth-inning home run wanted to cross the border, but likely had to settle for the CN Tower instead. That ball traveled 384 feet.

Magic Number: 11

José Abreu extended his hit streak to 11 games, after his seventh-inning single off Manoah.

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