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Six Pack of Stats: Royals 5, White Sox 3

Kansas City held off a late South Sider rally to win the series finale

By Darrin Brown
/ new
The Royals held the win expectancy battle from the third inning to the final out.
FanGraphs

The Kansas City Royals defeated the Chicago White Sox, 5-3, at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals move to 47-66, 13 games back of the AL Central-leading Guardians. The White Sox drop to 56-56, 3 1⁄2 games back of Cleveland.

The Starters

Dylan Cease started for the White Sox. Cease had his third consecutive start with six innings and one earned run, allowing two hits and two walks while striking out eight.

Cease used a four-pitch arsenal in his 94-pitch outing, using his slider and 4-seamer for 82% of his pitches. He had a 59% whiff rate on his slider, generating 13 whiffs on 22 swings. Cease gained velocity on all four pitches.

Cease’s breakdown looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Zack Greinke took the mound for the Royals, going 6 1⁄3 scoreless while striking out five.

Greinke used a four-pitch arsenal in his 95-pitch start, throwing his 4-seamer 50 times. He had a 50% whiff rate with his changeup, generating three whiffs from six swings while gaining 150 rpm of spin on the pitch.

Here’s the breakdown for Greinke’s scoreless start:

Baseball Savant

Pressure Play

With two outs and the bases loaded in the top of the eighth, down 4-2, White Sox center fielder Luis Robert flied out to left to end the inning.

The fly out had a game-high 5.16 LI.

Pressure Cooker

Royals reliever Wyatt Mills had a 3.34 pLI in his two-thirds of an inning of work in the top of the eighth.

Top Play

Leading off the bottom of the second, Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino hit a solo homer to put Kansas City ahead, 1-0.

The home run added .107 WPA for the Royals.

Top Performer

Greinke totaled .330 WPA for the Royals in his scoreless start.

Smackdown

Luckiest hit: White Sox catcher Seby Zavala hit a 66.9 mph, .050 xBA single in the top of the seventh.

Toughest out: Royals left fielder Nick Pratto barreled a .600 xBA fly out to center in the bottom of the second.

Hardest hit: White Sox right fielder Andrew Vaughn hit a 104.4 mph line out in the top of the fifth.

Weakest contact: Royals shortstop Nicky Lopez hit a 47.4 mph ground out in the bottom of the third.

Longest hit: Pratto’s second inning fly out flew 402 feet.

Magic Number: 11

The White Sox left 11 runners on base as a team in today’s loss to the Royals.

Individually, the lineup left 23 on base. José Abreu led all batters with five runners left on, and three White Sox hitters left four runners on (Robert, Harrison, Sosa).

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 5-3 loss to the Royals?

This poll is closed

  • 94%
    Dylan Cease: 6.0 IP, ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 8 K, HR, .170 WPA
    (35 votes)
  • 2%
    Yasmani Grandal: 3-for-5, 2-RBI HR, .105 WPA
    (1 vote)
  • 0%
    Seby Zavala: 2-for-3, .091 WPA
    (0 votes)
  • 0%
    Gavin Sheets: 1-for-1, .062 WPA
    (0 votes)
  • 2%
    Andrew Vaughn: 2-for-5, Solo HR, .027 WPA
    (1 vote)
37 votes total Vote Now

Poll

Who was the White Sox Cold Cat in the 5-3 loss to the Royals?

This poll is closed

  • 20%
    Lenyn Sosa: 0-for-4, K, -.228 WPA
    (7 votes)
  • 34%
    José Abreu: 1-for-5, R, 2 K, -.175 WPA
    (12 votes)
  • 8%
    Luis Robert: 1-for-5, K, -.169 WPA
    (3 votes)
  • 17%
    José Ruiz: 0.2 IP, ER, 2 H, -.102 WPA
    (6 votes)
  • 20%
    Joe Kelly: 0.1 IP, 2 ER, H, BB, -.072 WPA
    (7 votes)
35 votes total Vote Now

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