Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 5, Royals 1

FanGraphs

The White Sox, now 18-29, have won back-to-back series for the first time this season, defeating the Kansas City Royals (14-33), 5-1. Even though Salvy beat us once again, Lucas Giolito was lights-out and reliable — almost looking like vintage Giolito. The South Siders have set themselves up perfectly for a sweep, looking for Lance Lynn to leverage his last start where he gave up just one earned run to the Guardians.

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The Starters

Lucas Giolito’s six innings were mostly clean, outside of a brief hiccup in the first inning, when Salvador Pérez took him deep for a solo shot on Gio’s third batter of the game. He recovered exceptionally, only getting into a bit of a jam in the fourth, but ultimately finishing his outing unscathed. Giolito rolled with a three-pitch arsenal today, leaning on his fastball the most (38%) of his total pitches, followed closely by the slider at 35%. His fastball was slightly more effective, with 12 called strikes + whiffs, at a 35% CSW. Outside of his one homer to Salvy, Giolito didn’t give up any more runs, gave up five additional hits, struck out four, and walked just one. His record is now 3-3 and he improves to a 3.62 ERA.

Here is Lucas Giolito’s pitch breakdown:

Giolito’s 89-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Jordan Lyles took the bump today for the Kansas City Royals, and while he didn’t fully live up to his 7.14 ERA, the White Sox offense still tagged him for five runs (four earned) across five innings. Lyles utilized a six-pitch arsenal, using the sweeper the majority of the time, which was also his most efficient pitch at a 30% CSW. He threw 56 of his 91 pitches for strikes, ringing up five South Siders, but also walking three — with the final two being the final straw for his outing in the bottom of the sixth.

Here is Lyle’s pitch breakdown:

Lyle’s 91-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

Freddy Fermin couldn’t handle the pressure today, striking out with the bases loaded to end the inning, just after Giolito walked Nick Pratto to load the bases, on a 3.77 LI play.

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Pressure Cooker

Freddy Fermin’s strikeout also contributed to him facing the most pressure today, with a 1.56 pLI — just slightly beating out Maikel García’s 1.52 pLI.

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Top Play

Jake Burger’s sixth-inning, bases-loaded double to put the White Sox up 5-1 was today’s top play, at .130 WPA.

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Top Performer

Lucas Giolito’s one-run, six-hit outing was surely enough to be today’s top performer, with a .261 WPA.

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Smackdown

Hardest hit: Bobby Witt Jr.’s leadoff single left the bat at 112.3 mph.

Weakest contact: Andrew Vaughn’s ground out in the eighth left the bat at just 47.5 mph.

Luckiest hit: Nick Pratto’s nearly impossible double in the second had a .070 xBA.

Toughest out: Adam Haseley’s diving catch in the third robbed Michael Massey of a hit, which had a .780 xBA.

Longest hit: No surprise here. Salvador Pérez’s homer in the first went 372 feet.

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Magic Number: 2

The White Sox have won two games in a row and two series in a row, worked out of two bases-loaded jams, and were fueled by Jake Burger’s two hits and Yoán Moncada’s two RBIs.

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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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