Astros pitcher Dallas Keuchel is Box-Toppers Player of the Day in Tuesday’s American League Wild Card game.
Keuchel pitched six scoreless innings, striking out seven and allowing three hits, in the 3-0 win over the Yankees.
Keuchel had 21.4 Box-Toppers points during the regular season, ranked first among AL pitchers and fourth overall.
While the Astros were the second-ranked AL Wild Card team in terms of win-loss record, they did rank higher in team Box-Toppers rankings. The Astros rank eighth in team Box-Toppers rankings, third among AL teams, while the Yankees rank 13th, sixth among AL teams. The Yankees were Box-Toppers’ lowest-ranked playoff team.
The Astros will face the Kansas City Royals in the best-of-five AL Division Series beginning Thursday in Kansas City. The Royals have the AL’s best record and also have the most Box-Toppers points among AL teams, 127.5, ranked second overall, behind the Pittsburgh Pirates (129.6).
Top player from AL Wild Card Game
| 10/6 | Score | Team | BATTERS | AB | R | H | BI | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| POG | 9.0 | Astros | Dallas Keuchel (W,1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 |
Box-Toppers' 2 top NL teams meet in Wild Card Game
Coming Wednesday—The National League Wild Card Game is in Pittsburgh, with the Cubs facing the Pirates. Here is the pitching match-up:
Cubs—Jake Arrieta, 29.1 Box-Toppers points, ranked first among all players with the eighth-highest single-season total since 1995.
Pirates—Gerrit Cole, 19.0 Box-Toppers points, ranked ninth among all players, sixth among NL pitchers.
The Pirates rank first in Box-Toppers team rankings with 129.6 Box-Toppers points. The Cubs rank third with 127.4. In other words, the top two NL teams face off in a one-game playoff to see who qualifies for the NL Divisional Series. The Cubs were the hotter team during the final 10 days of the season, picking up 11.0 Box-Toppers points, while the Pirates picked up 5.5.
The winner of the NL Wild Card game will face the St. Louis Cardinals in the best-of-five NL Divisional Series beginning Friday in St. Louis. The Cardinals have baseball’s best record, but rank fourth in Box-Toppers team rankings, behind both the Cubs and Pirates, with 124.3 Box-Toppers points.
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.
Cubs vs. Pirates
Here are players for both teams in the NL Wild Card Game Wednesday. Players are listed for both teams ranked by Box-Toppers points earned in 2015. All players listed were on active Major or Minor League rosters at the end of the season—not necessarily all of them will be included on postseason rosters.| Chicago Cubs | Pittsburgh Pirates | |||||
| Player | Pos | BTP | Player | Pos | BTP | |
| Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | 29.1 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | 19.0 | |
| Lester, Jon 2173 | pi sp | 12.0 | Liriano, Francisco 2104 | pi sp | 14.9 | |
| Hammel, Jason 2235 | pi sp | 9.7 | Happ, J.A. 2536 | pi sp | 13.1 | |
| Hendricks, Kyle 3386 | pi sp | 9.7 | McCutchen, Andrew 2637 | cf | 10.5 | |
| Rizzo, Anthony 3063 | 1b | 8.5 | Melancon, Mark 2792 | pi cp | 7.0 | |
| Bryant, Kris 3465 | 3b | 8.5 | Morton, Charlie 2503 | pi sp | 6.7 | |
| Montero, Miguel 2304 | ca | 5.5 | Burnett, A.J. 1300 | pi sp | 6.0 | |
| Haren, Danny 1787 | pi sp | 5.0 | Ramirez, Aramis 1364 | 3b | 6.0 | |
| Schwarber, Kyle 3536 | lf ca | 5.0 | Locke, Jeff 3133 | pi sp | 6.0 | |
| Castro, Starlin 2767 | ss 2b | 4.5 | Soria, Joakim 2258 | pi cp | 5.7 | |
| Wada, Tsuyoshi 3389 | pi sp | 3.7 | Marte, Starling 3122 | lf | 5.0 | |
| Soler, Jorge 3403 | rf ph | 3.2 | Walker, Neil 2756 | 2b | 4.0 | |
| Wood, Travis 2777 | pi sp | 3.0 | Cervelli, Francisco 3387 | ca | 4.0 | |
| Fowler, Dexter 2698 | cf | 2.5 | Polanco, Gregory 3361 | rf | 3.0 | |
| Russell, Addison 3559 | ss | 2.5 | Alvarez, Pedro 2817 | 1b | 3.0 | |
| Jackson, Austin 2694 | cf | 2.0 | Blanton, Joe 1977 | pi mr sp | 3.0 | |
| Rondon, Hector 3201 | pi cp | 2.0 | Kang, Jung-Ho 3464 | ss 3b | 3.0 | |
| Strop, Pedro 3005 | pi mr | 2.0 | Caminero, Arquimedes 3498 | pi mr | 2.0 | |
| Coghlan, Chris 2610 | lf | 1.0 | Guerra, Deolis 3521 | pi cp | 2.0 | |
| Rodney, Fernando 1803 | pi cp mr | 1.0 | Ishikawa, Travis 2530 | 1b | 1.7 | |
| Cahill, Trevor 2658 | pi mr | 1.0 | Harrison, Josh 2947 | 3b | 1.0 | |
| Hunter, Tommy 2623 | pi mr | 1.0 | Watson, Tony 3215 | pi cp | 1.0 | |
| Grimm, Justin 3153 | pi mr | 1.0 | Hughes, Jared 3043 | pi mr | 1.0 | |
| Richard, Clayton 2584 | pi sp | 1.0 | Scahill, Rob 3391 | pi mr | 1.0 | |
| Motte, Jason 2926 | pi mr | 1.0 | ||||
| Beeler, Dallas 3528 | pi sp | 1.0 | ||||
| Ramirez, Neil 3439 | pi mr | 1.0 | ||||
| Totals | 127.4 | Totals | 129.6 | |||