Six Pack of Stats: Angels 12, White Sox 5

FanGraphs

The White Sox went 15-14 in the month of May. But they have lost five of their last seven games, as they drop another series and fall to 23-35 on the season. The game was pretty much out of hand by the top of the third inning. As has been characteristic of this team all season, it could not produce any type of offensive impetus. That is, of course, until it was way too late. In many games, scoring three runs in the ninth inning might help you win in walk-off fashion — but not when you’re behind by 10.

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The Starters

The tale of 2023 for the Big Bastard has been good Lance Lynn and bad Lance Lynn. There’s really been zero in-between, as the veteran was tagged with his sixth loss of the season. Again, the first inning proved to be Lynn’s Achilles heel. In his 11 starts, he has a 10.64 ERA, and his opponents own a slash line of .346/.404/.558 with a .961 OPS in the first frame. He surrendered two runs in the top of the first today on a two-run missile from Mike Trout. Even though the velocity was up on all his pitches except the curveball, Angels hitters had no issues putting the ball into play. Lynn exited the contest after giving up eight runs on eight hits, two walks, and four strikeouts, including three home runs in four innings.

Here are Lynns’s pitch visuals from Baseball Theater:

Lynn’s 89-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Jaime Barría took the bump today for the Los Angeles Angels. The Halos signed him as a free agent when he was only a teenager in 2013. The now 27-year-old righty has primarily pitched out of the bullpen over the last two seasons. Heading into today’s contest, he was 1-2 with a 1.55 ERA, 1.0 WHIP, and .187 opponent batting average in 34 innings. Those stats held true today and spelled T-R-O-U-B-L-E for the South Siders. Today the Sox struggled particularly with Barría’s noxious 4-seam fastball, which had a 40% CWS. Barría was exceptional today in grabbing the win as he surrendered only one run on four hits with three walks and six strikeouts, lowering his season ERA to 1.59.

Here are Barría’s pitch visuals from Baseball Theater:

Barría’s 90-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

Gavin Sheets did manage to hit a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Yoán Moncada in the bottom of the second with the bases packed and one out. Unfortunately, it was a missed opportunity to break the game wide open. The play had a 3.06 LI.

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Pressure Cooker

The only time the contest was really close at all was in those first few innings, and Gavin Sheets experienced the most stress of the game due to that bases-loaded sacrifice fly. He earned a blowout-diminished 0.90 pLI.

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Top Play

Shohei Ohtani’s first blast of the day scored Mike Trout and had a .171 WPA. It was the five-star moment of the game.

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Top Performer

There are no surprises here; Shotime demonstrated why he is one of the best players in the game right now. Ohtani went 2-for-3 with two home runs and a .195 WPA.

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Smackdown

Hardest hit: Ohtani scalded his second four-bagger of the game to right-center field in the top of the fourth at 111.8 mph.

Weakest contact: Jared Walsh tapped a fifth-inning force out at 54.27 mph.

Luckiest hit: Taylor Ward’s single in the top of the first had a .220 xBA.

Toughest out: Tim Anderson’s ground out to shortstop Zach Neto in the bottom of the third had a .530 xBA.

Longest hit: Trout squeaked out Ohtani here by two lowly feet. Kiiiiid launched a two-run rocket that landed 461 feet away in left center field.

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Magic Number: 2,162

The total number of feet the Halos’ five home runs traveled today.

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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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