Six Pack of Stats: Tigers 4, White Sox 1

The Detroit Tigers defeated the Chicago White Sox, 4-1, at Guaranteed Rate Field. Detroit (60-92) heads back to Comerica Park for a three-game series with the Royals. Chicago (66-67) heads into a road series against Minnesota starting Tuesday, with its first losing record since September 1.

The Starters

Tyler Alexander took the mound for the Tigers, allowing an earned run on a solo homer over six innings while striking out five.

Alexander used a five-pitch arsenal in his 79-pitch start, using his 4-seamer and cutter a combined 50 times. He gained spin on his entire arsenal.

Here’s Alexander’s breakdown:

Baseball Savant

Dylan Cease started for the Sox, going six scoreless.

Cease used a three-pitch arsenal in his 95-pitch outing, using his slider for more than half of his pitches. He had 10 whiffs and five called strikes with the pitch.

Cease’s Statcast data looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Pressure Play

With the bases loaded, two out in the top of the fifth and Chicago leading 1-0, Tigers shortstop Javier Báez popped out to catcher Seby Zavala to end the inning.

The pop out had 4.24 LI.

Pressure Cooker

Tigers reliever Andrew Chafin (W, 2-3) totaled 2.24 pLI pitching the bottom of the seventh.

Top Play

With one on, one out in the top of the eighth in a 1-1 tie, Tigers right fielder Kerry Carpenter hit a ground ball single to left to put runners at the corners.

The play added .144 WPA for Detroit.

Top Performer

Cease added .357 WPA for the White Sox in his scoreless start.

Smackdown

Luckiest hit: Carpenter’s single had a .230 xBA

Toughest out: Tigers left fielder Victor Reyes hit a .690 xBA line out in the third.

Hardest hit: Tigers center fielder Riley Greene hit a 108.7 mph ground out in the seventh.

Weakest contact: Tigers catcher Eric Haase hit a 21.4 mph ground out in the fourth.

Longest hit: Sox third baseman Yoán Moncada scored the lone White Sox run with his 410-foot homer in the fourth.

Magic Number: 6

The Sox have lost six in a row, getting ever closer to that vaunted “e” in the standings.

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