Six Pack of Stats: Angels 4, White Sox 3

The Chicago White Sox lost to the Los Angeles Angels, 4-3, at Angel Stadium. The White Sox move to 34-37, 6 ¹⁄₂ games back of the Twins for first in the AL Central. The Angels are now 35-40, 11 ¹⁄₂ games back of the Astros for first in the AL West.

The Starters

Lucas Giolito started for the White Sox, going six innings and giving up two earned runs on six hits and a walk while striking out six batters.

Giolito used a three-pitch arsenal in his 90-pitch outing. He used his 4-seamer 41 times. Giolito saw the most CSW success from his changeup, generating a 55% CSW rate (71% whiff rate) from his 22 thrown changeups.

Here’s Giolito’s breakdown:

Baseball Savant

Noah Syndergaard took the bump for the Angels and went seven innings, giving up three earned runs on six hits and a walk while recording seven strikeouts.

Syndergaard used a five-pitch arsenal in his 79-pitch outing. He used his slider a game-high 31 times. Syndergaard generated a 67% CSW rate on his two least-used pitches. While losing vertical break on all five pitches, he gained spin on all five as well.

Syndergaard’s start looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Pressure Play

With two on and nobody out in the bottom of the seventh and the White Sox ahead, 3-2, Angels shortstop Andrew Velazquez laid down a sac bunt to advance runners to second and third. The plate appearance — yep, a bunt! — had a game-high 3.83 LI.

Pressure Cooker

White Sox reliever Reynaldo López had 2.17 pLI in his inning of work, and this time, it’s didn’t work out for him: López gave up two earned runs on two hits and two walks while pitching the bottom of the seventh.

Top Play

With one out and two runners in scoring position in the bottom of the seventh, Angels right fielder Taylor Ward plated two runs with a double to right.

The two-RBI double added .269 WPA for Los Angeles.

Top Performer

Ward would’ve been the top WPA performer with that at-bat alone. His 2-for-4, two-RBI night at the plate added .312 WPA for the Angels.

Smackdown

Luckiest hit: With two outs and a runner on third in a scoreless tie during the bottom of the second, Angels left fielder Brandon Marsh hit a fly ball to right field that should have ended the inning. Thankfully for the Angels, the White Sox started another first baseman in right field, so the .190 xBA fly ball ended up being an RBI triple.

Toughest out: Once again, José Abreu falls victim to the barrel out. His 104.5 mph fly out in the top of the ninth had a .750 xBA.

Hardest hit: Abreu had two barrels during the game. This two-out RBI double in the top of the sixth was hit at an even 111.0 mph:

Weakest contact: Angels first baseman Jared Walsh hit a 45.1 mph ground out to the pitcher’s mound to lead off the bottom of the eighth.

Longest hit: Abreu’s barrel fly out was hit 390 feet, the furthest any ball traveled in Angel Stadium tonight.

Magic Number: 8

This is the eighth one-run loss for the White Sox this season. The South Siders are 12-8 in one-run games in 2022.

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