Marco Estrada kept the Blue Jays alive in the American League Championship Series Wednesday, while Lucas Duda led the Mets to a sweep over the Cubs in the National League Championship Series.
Estrada is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day while Duda is Player of the Game in the deciding NLCS Game 4.
American League Championship Series Game 5: Blue Jays 7, Royals 1
Estrada gave up one run over 7 2/3 innings, allowing three hits and striking out five, to earn overall Player of the Day honors.
The Blue Jays now trail the Royals in the best-of-seven game series, 3-2.
Estrada had a Box-Toppers game score Wednesday of +6.2, highest among Blue Jays players. Troy Tulowitzki had the highest Box-Toppers game score among Blue Jays batters of +3.0 (2B 2-4 R 3BI).
Estrada, during the regular season had 8.0 Box-Toppers points, 85th among all players and 34th among AL pitchers.
The series resumes Friday with Game 6 in Kansas City.
See Box-Toppers ALCS series preview with player-by-player match ups.
National League Championship Series, Game 4: Mets 8, Cubs 3
Lucas Duda hit a first-inning, three-run homer, plus two doubles and drove in five total runs, as the Mets swept the Cubs 4-0 in the best-of-seven game series.
Duda had a Box-Toppers game score of +5.0, highest among all Mets players. Second-highest among Mets players: +3.0 Box-Toppers game score by Daniel Murphy (HR 2B 4-5 2R 2BI).
During the regular season, Duda had 2.5 Box-Toppers points, ranked 377th among all players, 89th among NL batters and 17th among NL first basemen. In 2014, he had 8.5 Box-Toppers points, ranked 79th among all players, third among NL batters and first among NL first basemen.
The Mets were the lowest-ranked of all five NL playoff teams in Box-Toppers team rankings. The Mets ranked seventh among all teams with 122.0 Box-Toppers points, while the Cubs ranked third with 127.4.
See Box-Toppers NLCS series preview with player-by-player match ups.
The Mets now face the winner of the ALCS in the World Series beginning Tuesday in either Kansas City or Toronto.
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.
Top player from each game
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score
| 10/21 | Score | Team | Players | AB | R | H | BI | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| POG | 6.2 | Blue Jays | Marco Estrada (W,2-1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |
| POG | 5.0 | Mets | Lucas Duda, 1B | 4 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - |