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Six Pack of Stats: Royals 2, White Sox 1

Kansas City used two solo home runs to take the series opener against the South Siders

By Darrin Brown
/ new
Chicago made it interesting in the bottom of the seventh, but the Royals held the win expectancy battle from the fourth inning onward.
FanGraphs

The Kansas City Royals defeated the Chicago White Sox, 2-1, at Guaranteed Rate Field. The Royals move to 41-62, now fourth in the AL Central. The White Sox drop to 51-51, three games back of the Twins (won today on a walk-off home run in extras).

The Starters

Daniel Lynch went 5 1⁄3 scoreless innings in his 16th start of the year for the Royals, allowing six hits while striking out seven.

Lynch used a five-pitch arsenal in his 87-pitch outing, using his 4-seamer 49 times. He had a 57% whiff rate on his slider, generating four whiffs on seven swings. Lynch gained spin on all five pitches.

Lynch’s scoreless start looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Michael Kopech took the mound for the White Sox. Kopech went seven innings, giving up two earned runs from two solo homers while striking out three batters.

Kopech used a three-pitch arsenal in his 100-pitch start. He used his 4-seamer 49 times, generating a 33% CSW rate from the pitch with 13 called strikes. Kopech gained at least one mph of velocity on his entire arsenal.

Here’s Kopech’s breakdown:

Baseball Savant

Pressure Play

The game’s final play had the most pressure.

With one on, one out in the bottom of the ninth, White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson grounded into a double play to end the game.

The GIDP had a 4.59 LI.

Pressure Cooker

Royals reliever Dylan Coleman had a game-high 3.13 pLI from pitching the bottom of the seventh, inheriting runners on the corners with nobody out in defense of Kansas City’s 2-0 lead.

Coleman kept the Royals ahead by one after a sac fly, getting some defensive help from second baseman Whit Merrifield to end the inning.

Top Play

With one on, nobody out in the bottom of the seventh, White Sox catcher Seby Zavala singled to right field to put runners on first and third.

The play added .158 WPA for Chicago.

Top Performer

Royals reliever Scott Barlow added .327 WPA for Kansas City, with his scoreless eighth and ninth innings. Barlow allowed two hits, while striking out two.

Smackdown

Luckiest hit: White Sox left fielder Eloy Jiménez hit a .130 xBA single in the bottom of the fourth.

Toughest out: Royals left fielder Hunter Dozier hit a 105.5 mph, .820 xBA line out in the top of the second.

Hardest hit: White Sox right fielder Andrew Vaughn hit his first-inning single 112.1 mph.

Weakest contact: Tim Anderson hit a 47.5 mph ground out in the bottom of the seventh.

Longest hit: Royals catcher Salvador Pérez sent his lone hit of the night 452 feet into center field, his first no-doubt home run of the season.

Magic Number: 10

The White Sox have lost 10 games at home against AL Central teams this season, with a 7-10 record.

Chicago is 20-22 overall against the division this year. The Central is the worst division in the American League, and second-worst in all of baseball.

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

Poll

Who was the White Sox MVP in the 2-1 loss to the Royals?

This poll is closed

  • 94%
    Michael Kopech (L): 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, BB, 3 K, .063 WPA
    (32 votes)
  • 0%
    José Ruiz: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, K, .048 WPA
    (0 votes)
  • 0%
    Jimmy Lambert: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 2 K, .035 WPA
    (0 votes)
  • 0%
    Eloy Jiménez: 2-for-4, K, .032 WPA
    (0 votes)
  • 0%
    Gavin Sheets: 1-for-1, RBI, .021 WPA
    (0 votes)
  • 0%
    Yoán Moncada: 1-for-3, BB, K, -.001 WPA
    (0 votes)
  • 5%
    Andrew Vaughn: 2-for-4, -.045 WPA
    (2 votes)
34 votes total Vote Now

Poll

Who was the White Sox Cold Cat in the 2-1 loss to the Royals?

This poll is closed

  • 17%
    Tim Anderson: 2-for-5, K, -.227 WPA
    (6 votes)
  • 67%
    Yasmani Grandal: 0-for-4, K, -.182 WPA
    (23 votes)
  • 11%
    José Abreu: 0-for-4, K, -.177 WPA
    (4 votes)
  • 2%
    Adam Engel: 0-for-2, 2 K, -.041 WPA
    (1 vote)
34 votes total Vote Now

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