Six Pack of Stats: Astros 6, White Sox 3

The White Sox started off hot, but the million-dollar bullpen was ice-cold. In the second game of the series, the Astros pulled a fast one, taking advantage of the lackluster pitching in the second half.

---

The Starters

Lance Lynn had an arsenal of pitches this evening and was quite successful with them. In true White Sox fashion, he stayed in just a little too long and gave up a two-run home run. Lynn is historically not great against the Astros but held his own (quite literally if you watch his strike-out strut). Lynn gave up four walks but was scoreless through quite a few innings.

Lynn’s 96-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Cristian Javier got through five innings but showed signs of struggle. He allowed eight hits, three earned runs, and a walk. His fastball was used the most, but his pitch velocity was just not there for it.

Javier’s 82-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

---

Pressure Play

I think we all know what I’m about to say. The Yordan Álvarez bases-loaded double that brought three Astros home put immense pressure on the White Sox bullpen. Kendall Graveman loaded the bases for Jake Diekman to come in and give up the lead. The LI was a whopping 6.27.

---

Pressure Cooker

This entire Six Pack might end up being about one play. This time, it’s about Jake Diekman trying to handle a bases-loaded situation with one of the hottest hitters on the Astros. His pLI was 2.35.

---

Top Play

As mentioned in the pressure play above, the Álvarez double would put the Astros in the lead for the rest of the night. The WPA for the play was .492.

---

Top Performer

In a sea of negative WPA on the Astros' end, Álvarez balanced it out with a 0.48.

---

Smackdown

Hardest hit: Kyle Tucker’s sixth-inning home run left the bat at 109.8 mph. Close behind Tucker, however, was Eloy Jiménez. His sixth-inning double launched at 108.9 mph.

I’ll share the video I prefer.

Weakest contact: Andrew Benintendi’s exit velocity was abysmal today, but he was able to get a double on a ball hit at only 69.4 mph. Nice.

Luckiest hit: Elvis Andrus singled in the fifth inning despite the hit only having an xBA of .230.

Toughest out: Alex Bregman’s sixth-inning fly-out had an xBA of .850.

Longest hit: Kyle Tucker’s home run was hard to beat. That baseball traveled 437 feet.

---

Magic Number: 11

The White Sox might’ve lost this one, but ended up with 11 hits tonight. That feels like double what they had during most games last season.

---

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

---

---