Six Pack of Stats: Mariners 3, White Sox 2

FanGraphs

A rough start for Michael Kopech, cold bats, and late-inning errors are just some reasons why the White Sox gave up the first game of the series with the Mariners. Both teams struggled with RISP, but late heroics from Teoscar Hernández and a shutout inning from Paul Sewald would put the nail in the coffin. Let’s break this game down.

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The Starters

The scoreboard might paint a different picture, but Michael Kopech had a terrible night. He relied heavily on his defense to make plays. He did strike out four, but his command and velocity were on a steep decline. Kopech gave up six hits, six walks, and one earned run in a short start, before being pulled with the bases loaded and one out. His pitch count was also extremely high, ending with 102 pitches in 4 2⁄3 innings.

Here’s the pitch breakdown:

Baseball Savant

Bryan Woo had a much better night, as he fanned nine. He gave up just three hits, two of which would be home runs. While he was unable to complete the sixth, but only sat at 92 pitches. The final straw was giving up a home run to Andrew Benintendi. His slider was nearly unhittable for the South Siders.

Here’s the pitch breakdown:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

Tanner Banks inherited a bases-loaded mess with just one out. He managed to get Cal Raleigh to strike out swinging, but the real pressure, with a 3.87 LI, came with AJ Pollock up, and the bases still loaded. Pollock popped foul, the ball landing right in the glove of Seby Zavala.

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Pressure Cooker

A.J. Pollock wore a 2.17 pLI fueled significantly by not being able to bring in a single run with bases loaded and two outs.

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Top Play

Teoscar Hernández’s home run with a .221 WPA in the seventh put the Mariners ahead for the rest of the game.

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Top Performer

Again, Teoscar Hernández handed the Mariners .320 WPA and a win on a silver platter, thanks in part to his solo home run.

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Smackdown

Hardest hit: Teoscar Hernández’s seventh-inning home run exited the bat at 108.7 mph.

Weakest contact: J.P. Crawford’s second-inning grounder was dribbled a measly 58.0 mph.

Luckiest hit: Ty France singled in the third with a .190 xBA.

Toughest out: Seby Zavala grounded out in the eighth with a .490 xBA. However, Eugenio Suárez and J.P. Crawford would also ground out as such, for a three-way tie.

Longest hit: Teoscar Hernández also had the longest hit with the home run in the seventh. The ball traveled 432 feet.

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Magic Number: 16

This isn’t a good magic number. The Pale Hose struck out 16 times this evening. This was only the fourth time in White Sox history that they’ve had 16+ strikeouts without drawing a walk.

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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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