Six game win streak!
The South Siders took on the less cool Sox and were able to snag another W on the road to close out back-to-back series sweeps and bring their winning streak up to six! It was a lovely weekend of baseball, especially when you have solid performances from both Vince Velasquez AND Dallas Keuchel. The Good Guys are cookin’, y’all!
The Starters
Dallas Keuchel took the mound for the White Sox on this fine Mother’s Day Sunday morning and actually had a solid performance, holding Boston to just two runs through six innings. The Red Sox got eight hits and just one walk (!) while also striking out five times during his out-of-the-ordinary outing, pitching like his job depended on it. It probably does – or at least we can dream. During today’s outing, his command was much better, throwing 60 of his 92 pitches for strikes (65%), showing strong improvement from his previous outings. He clearly still struggles through the third time of the order, as he let up both runs in the last inning he pitched. Baby steps, though, right?
His 92 pitch outing looked like this:
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Baseball Savant
Tanner Houck started the game for the Red Sox, who is also not much to write home about with his 5.70 ERA. He only lasted 2 2⁄3 innings after the White Sox put some pressure on him in the third, giving up three runs on four hits and only striking out two White Sox batters. While only throwing 39 pitches, he threw 25 for strikes.
His 39 pitch outing looked like this:
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Baseball Savant
Pressure Play
Trevor Story struck out swinging in the bottom of the eighth on Matt Foster, who claimed Story as his first of three strikeout victims in the eighth inning. Hoping to get a rally going to close the one-run gap, he could not pull through. His Leverage Index for the play was 2.47.
Pressure Cooker
Bennett Sousa came in for the final out of the game, with the tying run on second base, after Jose Ruiz gave up a double to J.D. Martinez. He was able to record the last out at a 5.01 pLI.
Top Play
José Abreu’s two-run RBI double in the third inning that put the White Sox up 3-0 was the top play of the game. He increased the White Sox’s win probability by 18%.
Top Performer
Bennett Sousa securing the W in the bottom of the ninth increased the chances of the White Sox winning by 14%, nearly the same as Matt Foster, who struck out the side in the eighth.
Smackdown
Hardest Hit: Luis Robert’s groundout off of Tanner Houck in his first at-bat came screaming off of the bat at 109.3 mph.
Weakest Contact: Outside of the two bunts from Danny Mendick and Gavin Sheets (two bunts too many?) that came off the bat at 26.2 and 30 mph, respectively – Alex Verdugo had a groundout in the fifth that came off of the bat at just 48.4 mph. Woof.
Luckiest Hit: Leury García’s third-inning RBI single had just an xBA of .160.
Hardest Out: Also the Legend! Leury had a hard flyout that came off the bat at 106 mph and had an xBA of .660. You hate to see it.
Longest Hit: Christian Arroyo’s fifth-inning double off of Dallas Keuchel traveled 387 feet.
Magic Number: 6
Today, the White Sox’s six hits were enough to lead them to their sixth win in a row! And Dallas Keuchel has brought his ERA closer to six… that counts, right? The White Sox should simply continue beating teams – back to second in the AL Central!