Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 3, Astros 1

FanGraphs

The White Sox defeated the Astros. No, this is not a drill. They actually won a game. Between the quality start from Dylan Cease, Yoán Moncada’s penchant for doubles, and Luis Robert Jr.’s ability to launch balls to the moon, the White Sox were able to overcome and win, 3-1.

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The Starters

Dylan Cease seems to do his best work against the Astros. Cease had a quality start, only allowing four hits and two walks in six innings, and not a single run. He did have a rough first inning, with 26 pitches that led to a bases-loaded jam, but was ultimately able to settle in and give five clean innings after. Cease also pitched his first scoreless start since September 25 of last year.

Cease’s 97-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Brandon Bielak also had a good start this evening. He made it through five innings, giving up eight hits but no walks. He struck out four but gave up one home run to Luis Robert Jr. Bielak had an arsenal of pitches, but relied heavily on his slider to get the South Siders swinging.

Bielak’s 80-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

It got a little dicey in the seventh when Mauricio Dubón tied the game with a single to pitcher to Joe Kelly, sending Corey Julks home and Jake Meyers to second, on a 3.52 LI play.

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Pressure Cooker

Joe Kelly might have earned the win, but that doesn’t mean it was smooth sailing the entire time. Some bad defense from Andrew Vaughn nearly lost the game and landed Kelly’s pLI at 2.13.

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Top Play

The pressure play mentioned above gave Mauricio Dubón the highest WPA, at 1.85.

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Top Performer

Dylan Cease kept the Astros off the board for six innings, giving him a .360 WPA.

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Smackdown

Hardest hit: The beautiful Luis Robert Jr. home run was decimated at 109.5 mph.

Weakest contact: Jeremy Peña singled in the ninth, trying to keep the Astros alive. The weak hit came off of the bat at just 59.7 mph.

Luckiest hit: The Astros goofed in the fifth, allowing Andrew Benintendi to double despite a .110 xBA.

Toughest out: Jake Meyers might have looked good in the second with a .660 xBA, but his liner was gloved.

Longest hit: Another night of launching baseballs more than 400 feet, Robert Jr.’s home run ball traveled 427.

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Magic Number: 35

Luis Robert Jr. is bringing the heat to an ice-cold dugout, and is now on pace for a 35-home run season with a .850 OPS and 9.0 WAR.

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Glossary

CSW called strikes plus whiffs
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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