Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 5, A’s 3

Down to their last out, the Chicago White Sox executed an amazing comeback to defeat the Oakland A’s, 5-3, at Oakland Coliseum. The White Sox move to 71-68, a game and a half back of Cleveland for first in the AL Central. Oakland drops to 50-89, still in fifth in the AL West.

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The Starters

Lucas Giolito avoided three straight losses by pitching a quality start, going six innings with three earned while striking out six.

Giolito used a four-pitch arsenal in his 96-pitch outing. He threw his slider and 4-seamer 35 times apiece, with his slider generating a 45% whiff rate. Giolito had an overall 40% whiff rate despite losing velocity on all four pitches.

Here’s the Statcast data for Giolito’s ninth quality start of 2022:

Baseball Savant

A’s righty Austin Pruitt went five no-hit innings in an emergency start after James Kaprielian was scratched late.

Pruitt used a four-pitch arsenal in his 55-pitch start. The righty had a 75% whiff rate on his changeup, generating three whiffs on four swings.

Pruitt’s longest outing since July 3 looked like this:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

With two on, two out in the top of the ninth and the A’s ahead 3-2, White Sox second baseman Romy González singled to left to tie the game.

The RBI single had a game-high 5.38 LI.

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Pressure Cooker

White Sox closer Liam Hendriks had 2.40 pLI in recording his 32nd save of the season. Hendriks is tied with Toronto’s Jordan Romano for the American League lead in saves.

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Top Play

With two on, two out in the top of the ninth in a 3-3 tie, White Sox shortstop Elvis Andrus lined a double to left field, driving in a pair of runs.

The blazing 100.6 mph double added .420 WPA for Chicago.

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Top Performer

Andrus totaled .447 WPA on the night.

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Smackdown

Luckiest hit: A’s second baseman Sheldon Neuse hit a .120 xBA single in the seventh.

Toughest out: A’s third baseman Vimael Machin hit an .890 xBA line out in the sixth.

Hardest hit: White Sox first baseman José Abreu hit a 111.1 mph ground out to lead off the ninth.

Weakest contact: Elvis Andrus hit a 65.4 mph pop out to lead off the game.

Longest hit: White Sox DH Eloy Jiménez hit a 377-foot homer to kick off Chicago’s scoring in the top of the ninth.

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Magic Number: 80.5

The White Sox added 80.5% to their win expectancy with Romy González’s game-tying single and Elvis Andrus’s go-ahead double in consecutive plays.

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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

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