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With a big win on Wednesday, the White Sox have now taken two straight from the Guardians. The bats were hot early for a cold Peyton Battenfield, with home runs from Gavin Sheets, Andrew Vaughn, and Jake Burger. Let’s break down this win.
The Starter
Peyton Battenfield got the start for Cleveland. In his last five starts, he’s given up 15 earned runs, but there isn’t much more to go off of with this being his first year in Cleveland. Battenfield replaced Aaron Civale in the rotation after Civale’s oblique injury.
Battenfield made it through 4 1⁄3 innings before getting pulled. He gave up nine hits, three home runs, five earned runs, one walk, and two strikeouts. Only 10 of his 75 pitches were called strikes.
Battenfield’s 75-pitch outing looked like this:
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Pressure Play
In the fourth inning garnering a 2.26 LI, Brayan Rocchio grounded into a double play to second, advancing Will Brennan to advance to third and erasing Tyler Freeman at second.
Pressure Cooker
Andrés Giménez and Josh Bell tied with a 1.33 pLIs, as they both missed the mark in crucial moments that would help the Guardians turn the game around.
Top Play
Jake Burger was on fire this evening, so naturally, the top play is his fourth-inning, two-run blast that landed a .165 WPA.
Top Performer
Jake Burger kept fans fed all night with his dominance in the DH spot. Burger finished the game with three hits, one home run, two RBIs and a .172 WPA.
Smackdown
Hardest hit: Like last night, the White Sox were smashing baseballs left and right. Jake Burger’s late-inning heroics led to a triple that was hit at 110.6 mph. Right behind him is Andrew Vaughn’s home run, at 110.2 mph.
Weakest contact: Myles Straw’s third-inning double left the bat at just 71.1 mph.
Luckiest hit: As mentioned above, the softly-hit double by Straw only had a .130 xBA.
Toughest out: Andrew Vaughn cracked the ball at 106.9 mph, but grounded out despite a .540 xBA. Tied with Vaughn was Tim Anderson’s first-inning liner.
Longest hit: Gavin Sheets’ blazin’ home run traveled 420 feet.
Magic Number: 32
After tonight, Gavin Sheets has 32 career home runs, all off of righthanders.
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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