Six Pack of Stats: Rangers 6, White Sox 3

FanGraphs

The White Sox nearly (and probably should’ve) got swept by the red-hot Rangers. Last night Elvis Andrus had his revenge, but Jonah Heim doesn’t easily forget and served it right back to the South Siders on Wednesday. But tonight was Pride Night, and fans seemed happy to be at the park, especially after Touki Toussaint entered the game and dazzled through four innings.

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The Starters

Michael Kopech started off fine, going two scoreless innings. The third inning would bring a challenge, but it was handled. Unfortunately, there isn’t a whole lot to go off of, as he was pulled early with only 86 pitches. He was not facing any trouble, and there have yet to be any updates on why he left the game early.

Here’s the pitch breakdown:

Baseball Savant

Martín Pérez had a much better night, tossing 100 pitches over seven innings, and keeping the South Siders limited to just three runs. In fact, you may want to sit down for this, but most White Sox batters went after the first pitch and ended in an out. Pérez’s strikeout total was only two if that tells you anything, and he only allowed four hits.

Here’s the pitch breakdown:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

Michael Kopech let out a sigh of relief when Adolis García struck out looking with two on, two outs, and a tie game. Sounds stressful, right? The play reached a 2.25 LI.

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Pressure Cooker

Adolis García would have the highest pLI (1.06) in this low-stress game.

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Top Play

Ezequiel Durán’s fourth-inning two-run blast with a .216 WPA was all the Rangers would need for the rest of the game.

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Top Performer

Ezequiel Durán would walk away with a .204 WPA for his efforts on the day.

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Smackdown

Hardest hit: The top two were our very own, but both resulted in outs. Jake Burger hit a liner at 110.3 mph, and Eloy Jiménez getting the ultimate insult — a GIDP at 110.1 mph.

Weakest contact: Touki Toussaint ended his evening with authority, getting Nathaniel Lowe to tap out at 44.5 mph.

Luckiest hit: But Nathaniel Lowe also got lucky in the third, when the ball bounced off the wall and into Andrew Benintendi’s glove — that double only had a .200 xBA.

Toughest out: Corey Seager’s line out in the fifth came as a surprise, with a .910 xBA.

Longest hit: Ezequiel Durán’s fourth-inning, two-run home run traveled 389 feet.

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Magic Number: 4

Touki Toussaint pitched four scoreless innings tonight against one of the hottest offenses in the league. In fact, he made franchise history by going four innings with no hits allowed in his debut. He sits with Wilson Álvarez — who threw a no-hitter in his first White Sox game and second major league start, on Aug. 11, 1991.

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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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