Cubs pitcher Jon Lester is Box-Toppers Player of the Game in Thursday’s National League Championship Series Game 5.
National League Championship Series Game 5: Cubs 8, Dodgers 4
Lester allowed one run over seven innings, allowing five hits, one walk and striking out six, as the Cubs take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven game series.
Lester had a Box-Toppers game score Thursday of +5.0, highest among Cubs players. Second baseman Javier Baez had the highest Box-Toppers game score (+2.0) among Cubs batters (2B 3-5 R 3BI).
Opposing starting pitcher Kenta Maeda of the Dodgers had a Box-Toppers game score of +2.2 (3.2IP 3H R 2BB 6K ND).
Lester, during the regular season, had 22.1 Box-Toppers points, ranked fourth among all players, third among NL pitchers. This was the second time this postseason he’s earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors. He was also Player of the Game in the NL Division Series Game 1 win over the Giants, 1-0, on Oct. 7.
The series resumes Saturday with Game 6 in Chicago. There are no games scheduled for Friday.
See Box-Toppers NLCS series preview with player-by-player matchups.
About Box-Toppers—Box-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. In regular season games, players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.
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Top player from each game
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score
| BTG | Game | Player of Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| 5.0 | CHC 8, LAD 4 | Jon Lester (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |
| BTG: Box-Toppers game score | |||||||||||||