Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester earned Box-Toppers Player of the Day honors Monday for the second time this World Series.
Lester struck out seven over 7 2/3 innings and held the Cardinals to one run and four hits in the 3-1 win in Game 5 of the Fall Classic. The Red Sox take a three-to-two-games lead in the best-of-seven series.
Lester was also Player of the Day in World Series Game 1 as the Red Sox beat the Cardinals 8-1. He was also Player of the Game in the first game of the American League Division Series against the Rays.
Lester had 12.7 Box-Toppers points during the regular season, ranking 34th overall and is the Red Sox 2013 regular season leader in Box-Toppers points.
Game 6 is Wednesday in Boston.
Box-Toppers tracks players who most help their team win the most games. Top players from the winning team of each game are determined by a formula using standard box score statistics. In regular season games, 2.0 Box-Toppers points are awarded for Player of the Day, 1.7 for top player in the opposite league, 1.5 for top batter in each league and 1.0 for the top players in each of the other games.
Related story: Box-Toppers previews 2013 World Series in this post from Oct. 21.
Top 3 players in World Series Game 5
Here are the top three Red Sox players in Monday's World Series Game 5, ranked from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score (how game score is calculated). Red Sox starting pitcher Jon Lester, who had a Box-Toppers game score of 8.2, was Player of the Game (POG).
| 1028 | Score | Team | BATTERS | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | - | - | PITCHERS | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| POG | 8.2 | Red Sox | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Jon Lester (W, 2-0) | 7 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
| 3.1 | Red Sox | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Koji Uehara (S, 2) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
| 0.0 | Red Sox | David Ortiz 1B | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |