Six Pack of Stats: Dodgers 5, White Sox 1
Time to pull a reverse boycott like the A’s, since the South Siders will be worse than them soon
Let’s start with some good news — this game was not a shutout. Bad news? Everyone was awful, and the White Sox were embarrassed just like usual, only in another city this time. The Dodgers took advantage of a struggling Lance Lynn early on and never looked back. The offense might have been left in Chicago — and perhaps Lynn can be left in Los Angeles.
The Starters
Lance Lynn continues to do his best impression of Dallas Keuchel, giving up runs without any sign of command, and doing so with way too many pitches. Lynn gave up six hits, two home runs, four earned runs, walked two, and fanned six in five innings. He left Garrett Crochet with a mess to clean up. With such a large deficit and nonexistent offense, a win became an impossible feat.
Lynn’s 105-pitch outing looked like this:
Tony Gonsolin was able to keep the White Sox to only two hits and two walks while fanning six. And he didn’t have to tax the already-overworked Dodgers bullpen. Gonsolin didn’t even throw anything special or exceptionally good, but it was enough to keep the White Sox scoreless through six innings and 90 pitches, and hand over a clean game to Caleb Ferguson.
Here’s the breakdown:
Pressure Play
The White Sox had a chance to fight back with two on and two out in the fourth. Unfortunately, Yasmani Grandal grounded out to the tune of a 1.17 LI — and the sound of our hopes and dreams being shattered.
Pressure Cooker
Given the early L.A. runs, this was a low-pressure game, as the pressure play featuring Grandal only reached a pLI of a not-so-nice 0.69.
Top Play
Bobblehead honoree Will Smith’s two-run homer in the first, which gave a .175 WPA, was enough to give the Dodgers the only lead they would need.
Top Performer
Tony Gonsolin’s .208 WPA was enough, as he didn’t allow a single batter to score, let alone get more than a couple of hits.
Smackdown
Hardest hit: Jason Heyward’s single in the sixth would actually surpass a home run, at 105.6 mph.
Weakest contact: On the other hand, Heyward’s liner in the third would only come off the bat at 54.4 mph.
Luckiest hit: It’s Jason Heyward again! That first-inning single only had an xBA of .080.
Toughest out: With an xBA of .530 and a chance to at least get the game a little more even in the eighth, Tim Anderson would line out instead.
Longest hit: Will Smith’s first-inning, two-run home run traveled 413 feet.
Magic Number: 7
The @CHGO_WhiteSox account did the math after the A’s won their seventh game in a row. The last time the White Sox had a seven-game win streak was Aug. 22, 2020.
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