Six Pack of Stats: Blue Jays 5, White Sox 2

FanGraphs

The White Sox dropped their opening game against the Blue Jays, their fifth straight, and the eighth of their last 10. They now move to 7-16 on the year, and fourth in the AL Central. Pretty pathetic performance all around — let’s look at the numbers, shall we?

---

The Starters

Lance Lynn made his fifth start of the year, and after a handful of disappointing outings, he didn’t make this one much better. In his five innings, he gave up four runs on five hits, including a home run. Walks continued to be a problem, giving up three, and only striking out four in comparison. As usual, the fastball was his most-thrown pitch today, but it only found the zone 49% of the time, making those walks seem all the less unsurprising. His cutter had the most effective CSW at 34%, with 12 called strikes plus whiffs. His ERA now sits at a whomping 7.52 ERA, and is 0-3 on the year.

His 101-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

And here’s Lynn’s pitch mix:

Old White Sox friend, Chris Bassitt, was on the mound for the Blue Jays, and while he didn’t perform that much better than Lynn, the White Sox can’t score so it was enough to get the job done. Bassitt threw his sinker the most throughout the game, but the sweeper was the most effective pitch (43% CSW). Across 6 1⁄3 innings, he gave up just three hits and two runs, and also walked three and struck out four.

His 98-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Bassitt’s pitch mix:

---

Pressure Play

Cavan Biggio’s three-run shot in the bottom of the fourth carried a 2.77 pLI.

---

Pressure Cooker

Cavan Biggio also successfully faced the most pressure in today’s game, with a 1.61 LI.

---

Top Play

Biggio’s homer also was the top play today, with a .336 WPA.

---

Top Performer

Surprise, surprise! Cavan Biggio sweeps the category, with a .287 WPA for the game.

---

Smackdown

Hardest Hit: Andrew Vaughn’s third inning RBI double left the bat at 111 mph.

Weakest Contact: Lenyn Sosa’s fifth inning ground out left the bat at just 40.5 mph.

Luckiest Hit: Nothing super lucky today! Andrew Benintendi had the lowest xBA, with a hit at .530.

Toughest Out: Brandon Belt lined out in seventh with a .580 xBA.

Longest Hit: Matt Chapman flied out a deep 404 feet.

---

Magic Number: 5

Lynn’s five innings and five hits led the Sox to their fifth loss in a row. Joy!

---

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

---

---