White Sox Stat of the Day: May 2021

MLB.com is keeping track of a Stat of the Day for the White Sox this season, highlighting a unique, interesting or fun nugget from each game.

• White Sox Stat of the Day, April 2021

May 31: White Sox 8, Indians 6 (F/8) -- Sliding to success
Carlos Rodón's slider has been unhittable this season, and that statement is no exaggeration. Entering Monday against the White Sox southpaw, opposing hitters were 1-for-52 with 37 strikeouts against that particular pitch. The Indians were 0-for-11 with seven strikeouts in at-bats ending with Rodón's slider on Monday, until René Rivera and Bradley Zimmer both singled off the slider in the sixth inning near the end of his outing. So that adds up to 3-for-65 with 44 strikeouts on Rodón's slider this season.

May 30: White Sox 3, Orioles 1 -- Madrigal's 2-strike magic
Somehow, Nick Madrigal brings his best efforts in the tightest situations. With a pair of two-strike hits on Sunday, including a go-ahead RBI triple, the White Sox second baseman elevated his two-strike batting average to .320 (24-for-75). That's better than his overall batting average of .300. Since 2010, only three qualified players have had a better batting average with two strikes over a full season: David Fletcher (2020), Jorge Polanco (2020) and Victor Martinez (2014).

May 29: White Sox 7, Orioles 4 (G1); White Sox 3, Orioles 1 (G2) -- HR comes at familiar park
Billy Hamilton is not known as a home run hitter, as evidenced by his career home run rate of 0.7 percent (MLB average is 3.0 percent). But on Saturday, Hamilton hit a solo shot over the left-field wall at Guaranteed Rate Field for his first home run since Sept. 27, 2020, also at the same park. On that day, he was an enemy of the White Sox -- facing the South Side squad as a member of the Chicago Cubs.

May 27: White Sox 5, Orioles 1 -- Mercedes gets green light
Yermín Mercedes is 2-for-2 when swinging on 3-0 pitches this season and both resulted in home runs. But in the case of his second-inning blast against Orioles lefty Bruce Zimmermann, the White Sox rookie designated hitter had the green light. Mercedes' leadoff blast in the second inning of the series opener had an exit velocity of 116.8 mph, representing the hardest-hit White Sox home run tracked since Statcast was introduced in 2015. His 427-foot drive to left also is the fourth-hardest White Sox hit in the Statcast era, with a Daniel Palka double on June 5, 2018, against the Twins still No. 1 at 118.4.

May 26: Cardinals 4, White Sox 0 -- Rodón's run of dominance
Carlos Rodón exited with a microscopic 1.29 ERA and 72 strikeouts over 48 2/3 innings this season, against just 12 walks and 23 hits allowed. He also became the fourth pitcher in White Sox history to allow one run or fewer and one hit or fewer with no walks and 10-plus strikeouts over six-plus innings in a start, joining Gary Peters (July 15, 1963 vs. the Orioles), Floyd Bannister (Sept. 13, 1987 vs. the Mariners) and Chris Sale (May 22, 2014 vs. the Yankees). Peters, Bannister and Sale, however, each won their respective start. Rodón became the sixth pitcher overall to record those numbers in a start this season, and just the second to suffer the loss (the other was Milwaukee's Corbin Burnes on April 3 vs. Minnesota).

May 25: White Sox 8, Cardinals 3 -- Win-streak busters
Jack Flaherty suffered his first loss of the season after eight victories to open the year. The last time the White Sox snapped a pitcher's streak of eight-plus straight wins was on July 5, 1991, vs. the Twins, with Jack Morris entering that game carrying eight straight wins.

May 24: White Sox 5, Cardinals 1 -- Lynn stays stingy in May
Lance Lynn made his fifth start of May, with this one coming against a Cardinals organization where his Major League career began. But the right-handed hurler continued to allow little in terms of offensive output. St. Louis finished with three singles over seven innings, meaning that Lynn has yielded 15 hits over 28 innings pitched this month. He has led the White Sox to a 4-1 record during his May trips to the mound.

May 23: Yankees 5, White Sox 4 -- Keuchel with a rare error
White Sox starter Dallas Keuchel committed his first error since Sept. 16, 2017, on Sunday, and it turned out to be a costly mistake. The four-time Gold Glove Award winner couldn't handle Luke Voit's one-out grounder in the first, eventually leading to Gleyber Torres’ two-out, two-run single. Tim Anderson's second error of the season also led to a Yankees run in the sixth, giving the White Sox three unearned runs allowed.

May 22: Yankees 7, White Sox 0 -- Madrigal's third triple
In the top of the eighth inning, Nick Madrigal smacked a triple into left-center field. The ball traveled 378 feet, but Madrigal ensured the standing three-bagger by running the bases at a rate of 29.3 feet per second -- 30 ft/sec is considered elite and 27 ft/sec is league average. While completing his third triple of the season (which leads the team), he also performed above his 2021 sprint speed average of 28.1 ft/sec.

May 21: Yankees 2, White Sox 1 -- Rodón a K machine in NY
Carlos Rodón always pitches well at Yankee Stadium, entering Friday night's outing with a 3-0 record and a 2.84 ERA over three career starts in that venue. But the southpaw took it up a notch in the opening game of this series, bouncing back after his first loss of the season Saturday against the Royals. Rodón struck out the first five Yankees, making him the first pitcher since Sandy Koufax in Game 1 of the 1963 World Series to start a game with five straight strikeouts at Yankee Stadium. Rodón also set a career high with 13 strikeouts.

May 19: White Sox 2, Twins 1 -- Moncada racking up streaks
Yoán Moncada is making things look easy at the plate lately, extending his hitting streak to nine games, which is tied for the fifth-longest of his career. But the third baseman also extended his walk streak to eight consecutive games, the longest walk streak by a White Sox hitter since Jim Thome’s nine games from June 2-11, 2009. Moncada is tied with Minnie Miñoso (who accomplished the feat four times), Jose Canseco (twice), Rafael Palmeiro (once), Yasmani Grandal (once) and Yonder Alonso (once) for the second-longest walk streak by a Cuban-born player in Major League history, trailing only Jorge Soler’s nine-game run from April 20-28, 2018.

May 18: Twins 5, White Sox 4 -- Streaks come and go
Tim Anderson had the longest hitting streak in the Majors entering the contest, but his 12-game run came to an end as the shortstop finished 0-for-5 with a strikeout. Even with that hitless effort, Anderson has a .393 on-base percentage over his last 13 games. Meanwhile, Yoán Moncada extended his hitting streak to eight games with a double and his 25th RBI of the season. Moncada has walked in seven consecutive games and nine of his last 10. That’s the longest walk streak by a White Sox hitter since Adam Dunn walked in eight straight from June 20-28, 2013.

May 17: White Sox 16, Twins 4 -- Grandal walks into history
Yasmani Grandal was the lone starter to not manage a hit Monday in a game that featured a season-high 18 for the White Sox. But he still landed on base four times via walks, scored three times and drove in a run with a first-inning sacrifice fly. Grandal, whose 33 walks rank second in the American League, became the first player in White Sox history with three games of four-plus walks in a season. Grandal is 10-for-76 for a .132 average, but he has a .387 on-base percentage.

May 16: White Sox 4, Royals 3 -- Cease dominant over AL Central
Dylan Cease did not factor in the outcome of a 4-3 walk-off White Sox victory over the Royals on Sunday, allowing one unearned run on three hits, three walks and three strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings, but he continued his strong pitching within the American League Central. Cease has a a 1.61 ERA with eight walks and 25 strikeouts over four starts (one quality start) within the division this season. The right-hander has also tossed five-plus innings in each of his last four starts overall.

May 15: Royals 5, White Sox 1 -- Facing left did not go right
The pairing of an opposing left-handed starter on the mound and the White Sox offense has been a near-perfect victory combination for the South Siders since the start of the 2020 season, with the team posting a 22-2 record in that particular scenario. The only small blip has been two starts against the Royals' Mike Minor this season. Minor started on April 11 and allowed one run over four innings in a game won by the Royals, 4-3, in 10 innings at Guaranteed Rate Field. On Saturday, Minor was far more dominant, allowing one run on two hits over seven innings to earn the victory in a 5-1 final for Kansas City. The White Sox were 14-0 vs. left-handed starters last season and slipped to 8-2 in 2021 on Saturday.

May 14: White Sox 3, Royals 1 (Game 2) -- Vaughn's got pop
Despite not hitting his first home run until Wednesday, Andrew Vaughn has shown a lot of pop at the plate this season. With a second-inning home run that had an exit velocity of 107.6 mph in the nightcap of a doubleheader, each of Vaughn's last six hits and seven of his past eight have been hard-hit balls (95-plus mph off the bat), per Statcast. Of his 21 hits on the season, 15 have been of the hard-hit variety, with another coming in at 94.6 mph.

May 13: White Sox 4, Twins 2 -- Anderson's leadoff HR
Tim Anderson didn't wait long to get the White Sox moving in the right direction on Thursday. In fact, he didn't wait at all. Anderson launched the first pitch from Michael Pineda for a solo home run, marking the 79th homer of his career. The 377-foot drive also represented Anderson's 10th career leadoff homer and his fifth career leadoff homer on the first pitch. Anderson's 10 leadoff homers rank second all-time in franchise history, trailing only Ray Durham's 20.

May 12: White Sox 13, Twins 8 -- Four! Hamilton rakes
Billy Hamilton has a role based on speed and defense with the first-place White Sox, but he flexed his muscles with the bat to help his team secure a series win. Hamilton snapped an 0-for-14 skid with a triple in the second inning and finished a home run shy of the cycle in a four-hit game. It's the third such game of his career and first since Aug. 29, 2018 vs. Milwaukee, when he was with the Reds. He also recorded his 37th career triple and first since April 24, 2019, against the Rays, while with the Royals.

May 11: White Sox 9, Twins 3 -- Lucky No. 9
The No. 9, as in nine runs scored, has proven to be quite a good omen for the White Sox offense. With their victory Tuesday night over the Twins, the White Sox have scored nine runs in three straight games and in four of their last six. It's the first time they have scored nine-plus in three consecutive games since July 27-29, 2015 (10, 9 and 9 in those three). The White Sox improved to 4-0 in the midst of 13 straight games against the Royals and Twins, outscoring them by a 30-7 margin.

May 9: White Sox 9, Royals 3 -- White Sox roll in Kansas City
The White Sox should call Kauffman Stadium their home away from home. With Sunday's 9-3 victory over the Royals, the White Sox have won 10 straight in Kansas City. They swept the Royals for the third time in the last year, including a three-game sweep last July 31-Aug. 2 and a four-game sweep last Sept. 3-6. The White Sox are 4-1 vs. the Royals in 2021 and 13-2 vs. the Royals since the start of last season, a stretch in which the South Siders have outscored them 101-48. The 10-game White Sox winning streak at Kauffman is tied for the third-longest win streak by a visiting opponent in the 49-year history of this ballpark, trailing their own 11-game win streak from July 12, 1996, to June 4, 1998, and a 12-game win streak by Oakland from May 31, 2003, to April 30, 2006.

May 8: White Sox 9, Royals 1 -- First-inning outpouring fuels win
The White Sox had only one run on three hits over their final eight innings Saturday night at Kauffman Stadium, but that small total followed Chicago scoring eight runs on nine hits in the first inning. It was the first time the White Sox scored eight-plus runs in the first inning since April 21, 2002, vs. Detroit, when they also scored eight. It was the first time the White Sox have scored eight-plus runs in the first inning of a road game since June 18, 2000, at Yankee Stadium, when they scored nine runs in the opening frame, and it was the most runs the White Sox have ever scored in the first inning against the Royals.

May 7: White Sox 3, Royals 0 -- Collins' timely homer
The White Sox don't have Eloy Jiménez. They don't have Luis Robert. And with power numbers a bit down for José Abreu and Yasmani Grandal, Chicago ranks last in the American League in home runs with 26. This is the same basic group leading the AL with 96 homers in 2020. But a home run made the difference in the series-opening win against the Royals, as Zack Collins connected off Brad Keller for his second home run with one out in the fifth. It was the White Sox first hit and the only run needed by starter Carlos Rodón, who improved to 5-0.

May 5: Reds 1, White Sox 0 (10 innings) -- Moncada's streak snapped
Yoán Moncada snapped his on-base streak at 16 games following an 0-for-3 day against the Reds. Moncada hit .339 during the stretch with a .433 on-base percentage. Moncada's longest streak within a single season is 19 games, which he accomplished from Sept. 2-22, 2019.

May 4: White Sox 9, Reds 0 -- Cease's impressive night
In his hitting debut, Dylan Cease went 3-for-3 despite never having had a plate appearance in the Minor or Major Leagues. He became the second American League pitcher to record a three-hit game since the start of the designated hitter era. Jarrod Washburn completed the feat for the Angels on July 7, 2001. Right-handed-hitting Cease recorded two singles and a double on a fly ball to right field.

May 2: Indians 5, White Sox 0 -- A rare loss for Giolito
Lucas Giolito lost his third straight start, although he pitched well enough to win against the Indians. But that loss to Cleveland was Giolito's first against the Indians since June 11, 2018, at Guaranteed Rate Field. Giolito is 2-3 with a 2.21 ERA in 57 career innings against the Indians. But in his two starts facing Cleveland this season, Giolito has allowed one earned run over 12 1/3 innings with 16 strikeouts, but has received zero runs of offensive support. The White Sox are 1-5 in Giolito starts this season.

May 1: White Sox 7, Indians 3 -- Anderson breaks streak
Tim Anderson's second career grand slam, coming in the second inning off Triston McKenzie, was all the offense needed by the White Sox. But it also broke a streak of 15 straight solo home runs for the elite leadoff hitter, dating back to Sept. 6, 2019, against the Angels. The last player in the Majors before Tim Anderson with 15-plus straight solo home runs was Cameron Maybin with 16 in a row from July 20, 2018 to Aug. 14, 2020. The last White Sox player with 15+ straight solo home runs before Tim Anderson was Ken Berry with 15 in a row from Sept. 2, 1965 to May 26, 1967.