Six Pack of Stats: Twins 8, White Sox 2

The White Sox continue to crumble against the Twins in embarrassing fashion. The Twins scored a lot of runs, the White Sox had no fire in them, Josh Harrison had a double-play ground ball when he pitched in the ninth, and AJ Pollock got ejected in the bottom of the ninth that might as well be chucked into the Howl at the Moon File.

Not great. Let’s break this train wreck of a game down.

The Starters

Michael Kopech only lasted 4 ²⁄₃ innings and had a less-than-desirable night on the mound despite 62 of his 87 pitches being called strikes, seven of those swinging strikes. He allowed eight hits, walked four, and collected six earned runs.

Kopech’s 87-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Josh Winder had a much better night, despite only striking out three, walking two, and allowing seven hits. Winder made it through five innings and only collected two earned runs against the White Sox.

Winder’s 77-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Pressure Play

Michael Kopech escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first inning after one too many walks. With two outs, Kopech managed to get Alex Kirilloff to strike out swinging. The LI for the strikeout was 2.91.

Pressure Cooker

Tim Anderson faced the most pressure after grounding into a double play, striking out, and just having a rough night overall. Anderson’s pLI was 1.41.

Top Play

José Miranda’s two-run home run in the fourth inning essentially secured the win for the Twins with a WPA of .161.

Top Performer

Jorge Polanco had a great night, with one hit, one home run, two RBIs, and a walk. Polanco’s WPA was 0.16.

Smackdown

Hardest hit: Max Kepler’s fifth-inning home run off Michael Kopech was hit with force at 111.1 mph.

Weakest contact: Luis Robert’s fifth-inning single somehow had an xBA of .210 but was only trickled out at 46.7 mph.

Luckiest hit: Josh Harrison’s 1,000th career hit was lucky in more ways than one, since his xBA was only .120.

Toughest out: Andrew Vaughn’s double play in the seventh inning had an xBA of .730.

Longest hit: Alex Kirilloff’s second home run of the evening traveled 417 feet.

Magic Number: 1,000

Josh Harrison reached career hit No. 1,000 this evening. It would seem that not too many players have pitched on the same night they’ve recorded their 1,000th hits.

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