Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 13, Twins 0

The Chicago White Sox defeated the Minnesota Twins, 13-0, at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Both teams now have 67 wins, with the White Sox (67-66) moving to 2 ¹⁄₂ games back of the AL Central lead after being six games back on August 30. The Twins are a game-and-a-half back of the first-place Guardians.

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The Starters

Tyler Mahle took the hill for Minnesota after being reinstated from the 15-day IL. Mahle went two innings, giving up four earned runs on five hits.

Mahle used a four-pitch arsenal in his 37-pitch outing, using his 4-seamer 21 times. He lost velocity on every pitch, losing more than 2.5 mph on three of the four.

Mahle’s two innings looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Dylan Cease pitched a complete game, one-hit shutout in his 27th start of the year, allowing three baserunners during his nine innings of work.

Cease used three different pitches in his 103-pitch performance, throwing his slider and 4-seamer for a combined 91% of his pitches. He had a 56% CSW rate on his knuckle curve, getting four called strikes and a swing-and-miss from his nine knuckle curves.

Here are the numbers behind Cease’s one-hitter:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

With runners on the corners, nobody out in the bottom of the first, White Sox first baseman José Abreu lined an RBI single to right to put Chicago ahead, 1-0.

The 1.59 LI on the play was the most in the game, reaching 0.04 LI by the bottom of the fourth inning in the blowout.

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Pressure Cooker

Mahle led all players with a 0.68 pLI in his two innings of work.

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Top Play

One batter after Abreu’s RBI single, Sox DH Eloy Jiménez cleared the bases with a three-run blast to right-center field.

The 425-foot bell-ringer added .146 WPA for the White Sox.

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Top Performer

Cease and Jiménez were the only two players with >.100 WPA in tonight’s game. Cease’s .169 WPA from the hill narrowed out Jimenez’s .153 WPA.

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Smackdown

Luckiest hit: White Sox shortstop Elvis Andrus hit a .120 xBA grand slam in the eighth to make the game 13-0.

Toughest out: Twins center fielder Gilberto Celestino hit a 102.9 mph, .680 xBA ground out in the top of the third.

Hardest hit: White Sox second baseman Romy González hit a 110.5 mph single in the bottom of the second.

Weakest contact: Andrus had a 65.1 mph ground out in the seventh inning.

Longest hit: Jimenez’s 425-foot blast went further than any other batted ball.

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Magic Number: 2

Tonight was Dylan Cease’s second career shutout, and his first career nine-inning shutout and one-hitter.

Cease pitched seven shutout innings against the Tigers on April 29 of last year, as part of a doubleheader.

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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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