Six Pack of Stats: Guardians 4, White Sox 2

The Cleveland Guardians extended their AL Central lead to seven games as they took down the White Sox, 4-2, at Guaranteed Rate Field.

With the sweep, Cleveland moves to 83-67. The White Sox dip to 76-74, 6 ¹⁄₂ games out of a wild card spot.

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The Starters

Guardians ace Shane Bieber (W, 12-8) went 7 ²⁄₃ innings in his 29th start of the year, giving up two earned on seven hits, including a solo homer from Sox right fielder (sigh) Gavin Sheets.

Bieber struck out five in the win.

Bieber used a balanced, four-pitch arsenal in his 100-pitch outing. He got six called strikes from his cutter and 4-seamer, and generated six whiffs from his knuckle curve.

Here’s Not Justin’s breakdown:

Baseball Savant

Johnny Cueto (L, 7-9) went six innings while giving up three earned on eight hits and a walk.

Cueto used six different pitches in his 91-pitch outing, using his 4-seamer and cutter a combined 63% of the time. He had a 39% whiff rate on his fastball (38% CSW rate). He lost almost three mph on his slider and nearly two on his curveball.

Cueto’s start looked like this:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

With two on, one out in the third and the Guardians leading, 2-1, White Sox first baseman José Abreu grounded into a double play to end the inning.

The plate appearance had a 2.45 LI, with the bottom of the third having the game’s three highest-leverage plays.

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Pressure Cooker

Guardians reliever Trevor Stephan earned a hold with one batter faced, striking out Abreu on a foul tip.

The plate appearance had 1.78 LI.

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Top Play

Kwan’s RBI triple had .154 WPA, the only >.100 WPA play in the game.

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Top Performer

Bieber led all players with .228 WPA.

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Smackdown

Luckiest hit: Guardians second baseman Andrés Giménez hit a .210 xBA single in the eighth.

Toughest out: White Sox center fielder AJ Pollock hit a .660 xBA line out in the sixth.

Hardest hit: Mississaugan Josh Naylor barreled a 111.2 mph double to right in the fifth.

Weakest contact: José Ramírez hit a 23.4 mph single in the first. Cleveland voodoo magic strikes again.

Longest hit: Sheets sent his homer 405 feet.

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Magic Number: -5

With tonight’s loss, Chicago moves to 35-40 at home this year. Of the American League teams still in the postseason race, the White Sox are the only team with a losing record at home.

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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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