Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 7, Guardians 0

After an embarrassing Game 1 loss to the Guardians, the White Sox started off hot with Dylan Cease’s masterclass and bats that finally arose from their afternoon nap.

We also had an old friend alert on the mound for the nightcap, former White Sox draft pick Konnor Pilkington.

The White Sox pitching shut the Guardians down for a doubleheader split.

---

The Starters

Dylan Cease dazzled through five and started to run out of gas in the sixth. In the 5 ²⁄₃ innings pitched, he struck out nine, walked three, and allowed just five hits. His slider was dominant, with 44% called strikes + whiffs. Cease left the game with the bases loaded and two outs for Reynaldo López to save the day by stranding the runners.

Cease’s 106-pitch outing looked like this:

Konnor Pilkington came fresh up from Triple-A, being recalled just last week, and certainly pitched like it. The White Sox struck early on, and the errors from the Guardians didn’t help. Pilkington threw his fastball the most but didn’t succeed, as only 23% of his 90 pitches were called strikes + whiffs.

Pilkington’s 90-pitch outing looked like this:

---

Pressure Play

Dylan Cease left the bases loaded in the sixth with two outs for Reynaldo López. That wasn’t a problem for ReyLo as Luke Maile struck out swinging and stranded three. The LI for the play was 2.56.

---

Pressure Cooker

Kendall Graveman’s stressful inning tipped the scales this evening. He allowed two hits and a walk to load the bases and give the Guardians a chance to tie the game. He came out unscathed, but with a pLI of 1.39.

---

Top Play

José Abreu sealed the deal in the first inning with his two-run blast. Abreu’s WPA was .191.

---

Top Performer

Dylan Cease threw a gem tonight but shutting the Guardians out early on. He got the win and a WPA of 0.17.

---

Smackdown

Hardest hit: Luis Robert’s third-inning single was tattooed off the bat at 111.4 mph.

---

Weakest contact: Eloy Jiménez singled on a fielding error to third and allowed Andrew Vaughn to score and Luis Robert to advance. However, the ball left the bat at just 48.3 mph.

---

Luckiest hit: Luis Robert’s ninth-inning three-run home run had an xBA of just .090.

---

Toughest out: Ernie Clement had a chance to put the Guardians on the board as Kendall Gravemen loaded the bases up. Instead, he lined out to left and ended the inning. His xBA was .830.

---

Longest hit: José Abreu’s first-inning home run traveled 404 feet.

---

Magic Number: 142

According to Chris Kamka, Dylan Cease has amassed 142 strikeouts this season.

---

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

---