Six Pack of Stats: Angels 2, White Sox 1

FanGraphs

The White Sox drop the opener of a four-game set against the Angels in typical soul-crushing fashion. After an exciting pitcher’s duel for the first seven innings, Aaron Bummer unraveled in the bottom of the ninth, losing the game with a walk-off wild pitch. Turns out that wild pitch offense is only fun when it’s not happening against your team. Let’s just get to the point, shall we?

---

The Starters

For six innings, Dylan Cease fooled Angels batters and looked like the Cy Young contender we know he can be. As he often does, Cease relied mostly on his slider, slinging that for 48% of his pitches, but it was the fastball — which topped out at 97.7 mph today — that edged out the slider in terms of called strikes and whiffs, with a 33% CSW. Overall he was as efficient as ever, but he got into a bit of trouble after giving up an infield hit in the top of the seventh, ending his outing at 99 pitches. He ultimately gave up one earned on five hits, and struck out 10.

Here’s the pitch breakdown:

Baseball Savant

Reid Detmers had a fairly similar outing this evening in terms of command and strikeouts, giving up just two hits and also ringing up 10 South Siders. Detmers did walk two batters tonight compared to Dylan walking none — a huge feat for the White Sox offense, when you boil it down. Detmers threw his fastball 45% of the time, topping out slightly below Cease at 96.2 mph. His curveball ended up being his most effective pitch however, drawing a 36% CSW on 25 pitches.

Here’s the breakdown of his 105-pitch outing:

Baseball Savant

---

Pressure Play

Mike Trout scoring on the game-ending wild pitch from Aaron Bummer clocked in with a 4.11 LI.

---

Pressure Cooker

Aaron Bummer faced the most pressure tonight, with a 3.18 pLI, coming in to relieve for Reynaldo López with a runner on first and no outs in the bottom of the ninth. He couldn’t get the job done, though, losing the game in White Sox fashion on a wild pitch.

---

Top Play

To the surprise of no one, the game-ending wild pitch was the top play, increasing the Angels chances of winning by 15.6% and sealing the W.

---

Top Performer

Reid Detmers was today’s top performer with 31.9% WPA, limiting White Sox baserunners with just two hits — one being Luis Robert Jr.’s solo shot in the first.

---

Smackdown

Hardest hit: Shohei Ohtani’s solo bomb in the fourth blasted off of the bat at 113 mph.

Weakest contact: It’s possible a turtle could have beaten out Gavin Sheets’ ground out in the eighth, which left the bat at just 48.6 mph.

Luckiest hit: Brandon Drury’s single in the seventh had a .230 xBA.

Toughest out: Elvis Andrus was robbed of a hit in the third, with a line out that would be a hit 85% of the time with an .850 xBA. Brutal.

Longest hit: You guessed it — it’s the Ohtani dinger, which traveled 446 feet.

---

Magic Number: 1

Even with Reid Detmers dealing tonight, the South Siders aren’t going to win many games with only one run and RBI on one homer, and one walk each from ReyLo and Bummer that ultimately signed the White Sox death certificate tonight.

---

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

---

---