Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 9, Royals 2

The White Sox tied up the series against the Royals and are just two back, after the Twins and Guardians lost this evening. I’ll break down the numbers here in just a second, but first, some breaking news from the Dodgers.

Perhaps you aren’t a fan of the Dodgers, but baseball fans everywhere are mourning the loss of one of the greatest in the business. There will never be another like Vin Scully. May he rest in peace and know how loved and respected he was, and will always be.

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The Starters

Lucas Giolito, despite his third-inning meltdown, pitched pretty well. Giolito’s two earned runs seem like in light of the runs the White Sox provided. Giolito only allowed five hits and three walks while striking out seven in five innings. The third-inning jam slapped those two runs on him, but Giolito rebounded for another two frames. The bullpen helped him out as well, by keeping the Royals to just two hits, no walks, and no additional runs. His pitch count was quite high after the third inning, but it didn’t seem to matter in the long run.

Giolito’s 94-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Brad Keller, in my professional opinion, was hot garbage. Keller only lasted 5 ²⁄₃ innings, and like Giolito, left with 94 pitches. However, Keller walked one, accumulated just three strikeouts, allowed 13 hits, and was charged with eight earned runs.

Keller’s 94-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

Michael A. Taylor struck out swinging in the third inning — and unfortunately for the Royals, the bases were loaded and there were two outs. The at-bat against Giolito reached an LI of 3.49.

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Pressure Cooker

Lucas Giolito faced the most game pressure, primarily in the third inning. He was touched then for two runs in a bases-loaded jam happened, but he escaped mostly unscathed. Giolitio’s pLI was 1.21.

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Top Play

Eloy Jiménez’s double that scored both Josh Harrison and Tim Anderson, and advanced Andrew Vaughn, ensured the White Sox win early on. The Big Baby had a WPA of .129.

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Top Performer

Eloy Jiménez came in clutch and proved just how powerful he can be. His WPA was 0.22.

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Smackdown

Hardest hit: José Abreu might’ve hit into a ground out double play in the eighth, but wow, it was a hard-hit ball. Abreu launched the ball off the bat at 112.7 mph.

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Weakest contact: Andrew Vaughn’s first-inning triple passed right by the Royals but was only hit at 77.7 mph.

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Luckiest hit: José Abreu’s first-inning single didn’t look great on Baseball Savant, with an xBA of just .110, but it drove in a run and was quite lucky.

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Toughest out: MJ Melendez’s line out in the seventh inning off of Joe Kelly had an xBA of .700. But thankfully, Kelly was a ground ball creator and the scalder was gloved.

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Longest hit: José Abreu’s home run in the sixth inning traveled 401 feet.

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Magic Number: 9

Gavin Sheets currently leads the team in home runs at Guaranteed Rate Field. With nine. Kind of depressing, but hey, good for him.

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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

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