Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 8, Rangers 2

The Chicago White Sox found their explosive offense this afternoon against the Texas Rangers and split the four-game weekend series.

The Starters

Lucas Giolito labored through five innings of work, but he only allowed one run. He did give up six hits and walked three, but limiting the damage to one run with all those baserunners should hopefully catalyze Luc-ace G-elite-o the rest of the season.

His 103-pitch outing went down like this:

Baseball Savant

Spencer Howard continued his season’s struggles today. In 3 ¹⁄₃ innings, Howard allowed six runs (five earned) off of eight hits (including one two-run home run) and a walk. He struck out three, but the Sox offense ignited against him and the Rangers for the first time this series.

Howard’s labored, 72-pitch afternoon looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Pressure Play

With the bases loaded with two outs in the third inning, the Rangers were down, 3-1. After Corey Seager did not tag on what should have been a sacrifice fly on the out prior, Meibrys Viloria grounded out (3.56 LI) to end the inning.

Pressure Cooker

Meibrys Viloria tried to record some two-out damage, but he could not break through under 1.42 pLI.

Top Play

Up 1-0 in the game, the South Siders quickly found insurance runs. Andrew Vaughn just missed a home run to the deepest part of the park last night, but tonight, Vaughn did not miss, for a two-run home run (.174 WPA) in the third inning and a 3-0 lead.

Top Performer

AJ Pollock’s 3-for-5, one-run, one-RBI day from the leadoff spot earned him a .156 WPA.

Smackdown

Hardest hit: Nate Lowe sent a no-doubt home run ball to the right-field bleachers at 110.9 mph, with a 1.000 xBA in the seventh inning.

Weakest contact: The very first ball put into play today left AJ Pollock’s bat at 33.5 mph.

Luckiest hit: Marcus Semien snagged a .100 xBA single off of Lucas Giolito to open the bottom of the first.

Toughest out: Lucas Giolito induced an Adolis García line out (.670 xBA) in the third inning.

Longest hit: Nate Lowe’s home run traveled 452 feet.

Magic Number: 4

Four Good Guys (AJ Pollock, José Abreu, Andrew Vaughn, and Leury García) tallied three-hit games today.

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