Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 12, Twins 2

The Chicago White Sox defeated the Minnesota Twins, 12-2, at Target Field. The White Sox move to 44-45, 4 ¹⁄₂ games behind the Twins for first in the AL Central. The Twins drop to 49-42, 3 ¹⁄₂ games ahead of Cleveland.

The Starters

Johnny Cueto went six innings, giving up one earned run on seven hits and two walks while striking out five.

Cueto used a five-pitch arsenal in his 118-pitch start. He gained velocity on four of his five pitches, and spin on four of five. Cueto had the most CSW success on his slider, generating four called strikes on his 10 thrown sliders.

Cueto’s overall outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Sonny Gray took the mound for the Twins. Gray went 3 ¹⁄₂ innings, giving up six earned runs on nine hits and a walk, while striking out three.

Gray used five different pitches in his 78-pitch outing. He gained spin on his entire arsenal, and gained velocity on every pitch except his cutter.

Here’s Gray’s breakdown:

Baseball Savant

Pressure Play

With the bases loaded and two out in the bottom of the first, Twins first baseman Alex Kirilloff grounded out to second to end the inning.

The at-bat, which could have broken open the game early, had a game-high 3.07 LI.

Pressure Cooker

Kirilloff had 1.23 pLI in his four trips to the plate, going 1-for-4.

Top Play

With the bases loaded and two out in the top of the fourth, White Sox center fielder Luis Robert hit a grand slam to extend Chicago’s lead to 6-1.

The grand slam added .267 WPA for the White Sox.

Top Performer

Robert added .249 WPA for the White Sox in his 3-for-5, five-RBI night.

Smackdown

Luckiest hit: White Sox DH Andrew Vaughn hit a .110 xBA single in the top of the first.

Toughest out: White Sox catcher Seby Zavala hit a .720 xBA line out in the top of the seventh.

Hardest hit: White Sox third baseman Yoán Moncada barreled a 111.5 mph single to right in the top of the ninth, to the surprise of many hit harder than Robert’s grand slam.

Weakest contact: Robert hit a 38.4 mph ground out in the top of the first.

Longest hit: Picking up four of his five RBIs, Robert’s fourth-inning grand slam went 452 feet into the second deck at Target Field.

Magic Number: 8

Luis Robert has eight RBIs in his last three games.

Robert went 3-for-4 against the Guardians on July 12, amassing three RBIs.

Glossary

Hard-hit is any ball off the bat at 95 mph or more
LI measures pressure per play
pLId measures total pressure faced in-game
Whiff a swing-and-miss
WPA win probability added measures contributions to the win
xBA expected batting average