Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 1, Giants 0

The Chicago White Sox defeated the San Francisco Giants, 1-0, at Oracle Park. The Sox move to 35-39, six games back of the Twins for first in the AL Central. The Giants are now 40-35, 7 ¹⁄₂ games back of the Dodgers for first in the NL West.

The Starters

Lance Lynn started for the White Sox. Lynn went six scoreless innings, allowing three hits and two walks while striking out five hitters.

Lynn used a six-pitch arsenal in his 104-pitch outing. He used his 4-seamer 45 times. Lynn saw the most CSW success with his sinker, generating a 33% CSW rate from his 15 thrown sinkers. He lost spin on all six pitches and lost velocity on every pitch except his curveball.

Here’s Lynn’s breakdown:

Baseball Savant

Alex Cobb started for the Giants and went five scoreless innings, allowing three hits and a walk while recording three strikeouts.

Cobb used a three-pitch arsenal in his 67-pitch outing. He used his sinker a game-high 34 times, generating 12 called strikes for a 35% CSW rate. While gaining spin on his sinker and splitter, Cobb saw a 629 rpm decrease in spin on his knuckle-curve.

Cobb’s 67-pitch start looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Pressure Play

With two on, two out in the top of the ninth in a scoreless tie, Leury García singled to right field to score Adam Haseley from second.

The play had a 4.42 LI in a game with many high-leverage situations.

Pressure Cooker

Giants left fielder Darin Ruf had a 2.71 pLI from his pinch-hitting at-bat in the bottom of the eighth.

Ruf grounded into a double play after the leadoff batter reached on a walk.

Top Play

Leury’s go-ahead single in the top of the ninth added .370 WPA for the White Sox.

Top Performer

Despite Leury’s big play, starter Lance Lynn took game honors with a .347 WPA over his six scoreless innings.

Smackdown

Luckiest hit: White Sox left fielder AJ Pollock hit an .050 xBA ground-ball single to third with two outs and a runner on first to keep the top of the ninth going.

Toughest out: Leading off the top of the fifth, Yoán Moncada barreled a 101.9 mph, .820 xBA warning track fly out to Giants center fielder Mike Yastrzemski, who made a running catch into the wall.

Hardest hit: Tim Anderson’s 108.6 mph third inning ground out had the game’s fastest exit velocity.

Weakest contact: Moncada’s force out in the top of the second was hit at 65.9 mph.

Longest hit: No baseball made it further than Yastrzemski’s glove, 386 feet from home plate.

Magic Number: 4

José Abreu’s ninth-inning fly out is his fourth barrel out in 2022 in the seventh inning or later. Abreu has 13 total barrel outs 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