That’s a White Sox winner!
The White Sox even the series against the Cleveland Guardians after a devastating loss last night. Gavin Sheets once again finds the perfect pitch for a two-run homer while the Guardians seemed to make costly mistakes. Josh Naylor was also possibly out of steam after last night with just one home run.
The Starters
Lucas Giolito showed his Ace-worthy command this evening. While his strikeout count was not as high as usual, he still silenced the Guardians and only allowed one earned run. Naturally, it was Josh Naylor with the home run. Otherwise, nearly perfect through seven innings.
Giolito’s 91 pitch outing looked like this:
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Cal Quantrill also had a great night on the mound. A little less efficient than Lucas Giolito, but his 35% CSW on his cutter was solid. Both pitchers were scoreless until the fifth inning.
Quantrill’s 98 pitch outing looked like this:
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Pressure Play
Andrés Giménez had runners in scoring position but grounded out into a double play that ended the inning. This could have put the Guardians on the board early but instead gave Giménez an LI of 2.13.
Pressure Cooker
Andrés Giménez put the Guardians in a tough place and faced the most pressure. His pLI was 1.32 and his WPA was -0.17 as he went 0-4.
Top Play
With two outs and Luis Robert on base, Gavin Sheets knocked one out of the park for a two-run home run. Sheets’ WPA for the home run was .171.
Top Performer
Lucas Giolito dazzled on the mound with five strikeouts, one earned run and seven innings pitched. He put the White Sox in the best position to win with his Ace-worthy performance and 0.33 WPA.
Smackdown
Hardest hit: Luis Robert’s sixth-inning single possibly had smoke coming off the bat after his 110 mph hit.
Weakest contact: Tim Anderson’s seventh-inning double might’ve brought Adam Engel around to score, but it was just lightly tapped at 58.1 mph.
Luckiest hit: Yoán Moncada managed to get to first in the third inning on a lightly hit ball thanks to some butterfinger plays by the Guardians. The exit velocity was only 69.9 mph and his xBA was just 0.80.
Toughest out: Myles Straw’s third-inning line out had an xBA of .690 despite being hard hit and traveling 285 ft.
Longest hit: Gavin Sheets hit a beautiful redemption home run in the sixth inning that traveled 419 ft.
Magic Number: 3
José Abreu and Gavin Sheets have one thing in common — three home runs each this season. Abreu in 105 at-bats and Sheets at 74 at-bats.
Glossary
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