Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 3, Yankees 2

The Seby Zavala Game Part 2: Electric Boogaloo

FanGraphs

Don’t look now, but the White Sox just beat the Yankees. It got a little too close for comfort in the ninth after everyone’s least favorite player hit a home run, but Liam Hendriks was able to close it down in the Bronx for a save. While Aaron Judge being out of the lineup might’ve helped the White Sox, Seby Zavala, a known Yankees-killer, drove in all of the White Sox runs.

The Starters

Lucas Giolito struggled a little with his location, but that didn’t stop him from tossing a no-hitter through six innings. He was pulled at 100 pitches, and Joe Kelly gave up the first “hit” in the seventh. Giolito fanned seven and walked three, dazzling a Judge-less Yankees team with his fastball.

Giolito’s 100-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

Clarke Schmidt’s six innings were not as pretty as Giolito’s. Schmidt allowed six hits, two home runs, and had only one strikeout. He didn’t walk anyone, but the three earned runs would ultimately haunt him, with pictures of Seby Zavala dancing in his head. Schmidt’s best pitch was his sweeper, but that wasn’t even considered good tonight. He used it 25 times in his 79 pitches.

Here’s the breakdown:

Baseball Savant

Pressure Play

Anthony Volpe’s 3.40 LI ground out to shortstop in the ninth fired Liam Hendriks up, and was the rally the South Siders would need to close out the game.

Pressure Cooker

Liam Hendriks’ pLI would skyrocket to 2.36 after that Josh Donaldson home run. Thankfully, the pressure would significantly decline allowing Hendriks to get the save.

Top Play

Seby Zavala, now known as the WPA King, drove in all three White Sox runs. The homer that also brought Romy González in would reach a game-high .209 WPA.

Top Performer

Seby Zavala made a strong push at .319 WPA, but no-hit man Lucas Giolito eked past him at .322. Zavala brought in all the runs, and Giolito would prevent the Yankees from bringing any runs in.

Smackdown

Hardest hit: This is the Seby Zavala game, so he naturally has the hardest hit. His fifth-inning home run flew off the bat at 108.9 mph.

Weakest contact: There were a lot of weak attempts this evening, with the White Sox filling out four of the top five. Yoán Moncada would ground out twice to begin and end the list, with the weakest at 65.2 mph.

Luckiest hit: Zavala’s first home run of the night only had an .020 xBA, on a round-tripper that would have left just two of 29 other MLB parks. Don’t they know he’s great against the Yankees?

Toughest out: Willie Calhoun’s line out in the second came as a shock to all, with an xBA of a towering .850.

Longest hit: We all know the answer: Zavala in the fifth, with a home run that traveled 435 feet.

Magic Number: 4 1⁄2

With a Twins loss and a White Sox win, they’re slowly creeping up on the Tigers and just 4 1⁄2 games out of first. Yeah, that sentence was painful to write. But hey, we are 4 1⁄2 games back in June. The last time the White Sox were that close to first was the third week of April. Again, that was painful. Sorry.

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