Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 2, Tigers 0

The White Sox are back on the South Side, to host the struggling Tigers. Michael Kopech dazzled on the mound with six shutout innings and a career-high strikeout count. The offense was slow to wake up, but eventually, enough hits came and the White Sox walked away with a win.

The Starters

Michael Kopech was electric on the mound tonight. He had a no-hitter bid throughout his six innings and hit a career-high milestone of 11 strikeouts. Kopech did walk three, but never allowed a run. He primarily threw a fastball, and it looked beautiful each time. Unfortunately, the bats were cold and he left with a no-decision after pitching a gem.

Kopech’s 85-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Daniel Norris came into the game with an ERA nearing seven, but kept the Sox to just three singles and a double in his 4 ²⁄₃ innings. He allowed two walks, while only striking out one — but the outing was scoreless.

Norris’ 64-pitch game looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Pressure Play

The pressure was on for Alex Lange when Andrew Vaughn’s single wasn’t caught in the seventh inning. Vaughn’s single sent Yoán Moncada and Josh Harrison home and gave the White Sox the runs they needed to win. The LI for the play was 4.68.

Pressure Cooker

Reynaldo López and Alex Lange were tied with a pLI of 2.17. Both had a rough night, as López allowed a hit and worked himself into a jam at one point. Lange gave up three hits, walked one and was charged with two earned runs.

Top Play

The pressure play was also the top play. Andrew Vaughn took advantage of a bases-loaded situation and sent two home to take the lead. His WPA was .280.

Top Performer

Let's give it up for Michael Kopech tonight. He ended his night with six innings pitched, in which he carried a no-hitter bid throughout. Kopech walked three but fanned 11. Kopech’s WPA was 0.35. Mercy.

Smackdown

Hardest hit: Javier Báez’s single in the seventh inning just barely eclipsed AJ Pollock’s fifth-inning double. Báez smoked the ball at 108.8 mph while Pollock’s was hit at 108.6 mph.

Weakest contact: A lot of the balls in this game were weakly-hit. Luis Robert’s sixth-inning single was the softest, at just 62.3 mph.

Luckiest hit: Robert’s weak contact was also the luckiest of the game, with an xBA of just .070.

Toughest out: AJ Pollock’s line out in the first inning had an xBA of .780.

Longest hit: With no home runs in the game, Yoán Moncada wins this with a line out that traveled 369 feet.

Magic Number: 11

Michael Kopech reached a career-high strikeout count, as he fanned 11 this evening. This was also his second career double-digit strikeout game.

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