Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 6, Guardians 3

The Chicago White Sox found their power and took this Sunday’s game from the Cleveland Guardians, opening up the second half with a four-game series split.

The Starters

Dylan Cease continues to prove why he should have been named an All-Star and paves his way toward a better goal: AL Cy Young winner. Needing to cool down the Guardians’ bats, Cease did allow quite a few hits (seven) but only two of those hits were of the extra-base variety (two doubles).

Through six innings of work, Dealin’ Cease allowed zero runs and struck out four batters. It was a case of a little more finesse pitching today than strikeout pitching. His ERA has dropped to 2.03.

In 97 pitches of work, this is Cease’s pitch breakdown:

Baseball Savant

Shane Bieber, on the other hand, struggled mightily against the Good Guys this afternoon (finally!). In his six innings of work, Shane allowed six runs off of eight hits (three home runs!) and one walk while striking out four.

However, he only tossed 76 pitches, which pays tribute to the successfully aggressive (for once) Sox hitters.

Baseball Savant

Pressure Play

With ducks on the pond and two outs in the first inning, Eloy Jiménez flew out to left (1.99 LI) to end the frame.

Pressure Cooker

Andrés Giménez just beats out Dylan Cease’s .66 pLI, at .67 pLI, after a 1-for-4 day.

Top Play

Leury García, “Leury Legend,” opened the scoring with a two-run home run (.189 WPA) off of Bieber in the second inning for a 2-0 score.

Top Performer

Dylan Cease (.183 WPA) is barely beaten out once more, this time by Leury Legend (.184 WPA).

Smackdown

Hardest hit: Three hits saw 107+ mph exit velo this afternoon! Gavin Sheets recorded a 107.8 mph single in the second, Eloy Jiménez torched a ball in the third at 107.6 mph for a ground out, and Andrés Giménez secured a 107.5 mph double in the sixth.

Weakest contact: AJ Pollock, who notched a three-run home run earlier in the game, also recorded a 46.6 mph ground out in the seventh inning.

Luckiest hit: Josh Naylor’s single in the eighth off of Kendall Graveman had a 12% chance of being a hit. Yet, Steven Kwan’s solo shot in the ninth inning had a 9% chance of being a hit!

Toughest out: Ernie Clement recorded a .570 xBA fly out off of Cease in the sixth inning.

Longest hit: Eloy Jiménez’s sixth inning solo shot traveled 416 feet.

Magic Number: .5

Better to gain than lose, but a half-game gained every 19 isn’t going to get it done.

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

And finally, congratulations to Minnie Miñoso and family on his induction to the Hall of Fame! I only wish it happened while he was still with us.