Howdy, y’all. The White Sox made it to Texas to face the Rangers for the next few days. Johnny Cueto once again carried the team on his back, but rookie mistakes and a deflated offense proved to bigger factors. Also, the whole first baseman in the outfield thing, something that could’ve been addressed on Tuesday.
But what do I know?
Let’s break it down.
The Starters
Johnny Cueto had an outstanding night, pitching eight solid innings of baseball. Cueto allowed three runs off of 11 hits and struck out four. While the last part doesn’t exactly look good on paper, I’ll again remind you that it was through eight innings, 106 pitches, and a sad excuse for the defense that was there to back him up.
Cueto’s outing looked like this:
Cole Ragans, who didn’t play from 2018 to 2021 after two Tommy John surgeries in 14 months, took the mound today for the Rangers. Ragans pitched through five innings, only allowing three hits and four strikeouts. His walk rate was rough, with four, and despite the score being tied at his departure, the White Sox run was not earned. For his first MLB outing, Ragans had a quality debut, and it was quite deserving after all he’s been through. Ragans mixed it up, but primarily depended on his fastball and changeup.
Ragans’ 93-pitch outing looked like this:
Pressure Play
Yasmani Grandal could have been the hero we all needed tonight, with two on, two outs, and a 3-2 score in the eighth. He was not, however, and his fly out to left field landed him with a fail in the face of a 4.43 LI.
Pressure Cooker
Meibrys Viloria came in to pinch-hit for DH Elier Hernández and ended up getting a much-needed RBI for the Rangers. Viloria’s pLI was a chart-topping 3.16.
Top Play
Meibrys Viloria singled to center in the bottom of the seventh, allowing Leody Travis to score and Ezequiel Durán to advance to third. The Rangers took the lead and ultimately kept it after adding another run. The WPA for the play was .211.
Top Performer
Meibrys Viloria helped put the Rangers on top, and left the game with a WPA of 0.21.
Smackdown
Hardest hit: Nathaniel Lowe’s fourth-inning, wall-bouncing double was hit at 112.2 mph.
Weakest contact: Bubba Thompson got pretty lucky on a hit that was only tapped at 48.3 mph. It managed to get by Josh Harrison in the seventh and land him on first.
Luckiest hit: Yoán Moncada’s eighth-inning triple was the boost the White Sox needed as they climbed back to cut the lead by one. The hit was a gift, as it only had an xBA of .180.
Toughest out: Adolis García smoked the ball in the fifth inning with an xBA of .540. However, he grounded out.
Longest hit: Corey Seager’s sixth-inning double traveled 371 feet.
Magic Number: 10
AJ Pollock reached 10 years of service time in tonight’s game. Jake Diekman will also reach the 10-year mark during this series. Others on the team that have reached that milestone this season are Josh Harrison and Yasmani Grandal — and Joe Kelly will hit the milestone later in the season.
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
Poll
Who was your White Sox MVP?
This poll is closed
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96%
Johnny Cueto: 8 IP, 4 K, 0 BB, 3 ER
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0%
Luis Robert: 1-for-5, 2 BB, 1 R, 0.06 WPA
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3%
Andrew Vaughn: 1-for-4, 1 RBI, 0.11 WPA
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0%
José Abreu: 1-for-4, 1 R, 1 BB, 0.06 WPA
Poll
Who was your White Sox Cold Cat?
This poll is closed
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77%
Tim Anderson: 0-for-5, 3 K, -0.14 WPA
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14%
Yasmani Grandal: 0-for-4, 1 K, 1 BB, -0.15 WPA
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3%
Josh Harrison: 0-for-3, 1 K, -0.16 WPA
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3%
Eloy Jiménez: 0-for-4, 1 K, -0.13 WPA
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