Blue Jays pitcher Marcus Stroman is Box-Toppers Player of the Day in Tuesday’s American League Wild Card game.
Stroman pitched six innings, allowing two runs on four hits, striking out six and walking none, in the 5-2, 11-inning win over the Orioles. Stroman did not earn the win, picking up a no-decision, because the game was tied 2-2 when he exited.
Stroman had 6.7 Box-Toppers points during the regular season, ranked 43rd among AL pitchers, 112th overall.
While the Blue Jays were the top-ranked Wild Card team, they rank lower in Box-Toppers team rankings. The Blue Jays rank ninth among all teams with 114.0 accumulated Box-Toppers points. The Orioles ranked seventh with 116.6.
The Blue Jays will face the Texas Rangers in the best-of-five AL Division Series beginning Thursday in Texas. The Rangers have the AL’s best winning percentage (.586), but rank third among AL teams and fifth among all teams in Box-Toppers team rankings with 122.5 points.
Top player from AL Wild Card Game
| BTG | Game | Player of Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| 4.0 | `TOR 5, BAL 2 (11) | Marcus Stroman | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 | |
| `Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save. | |||||||||||||
| BTG: Box-Toppers game score | |||||||||||||
Box-Toppers’ NL Wild Card Preview
Coming Wednesday—The National League Wild Card Game is in New York, with the Giants facing the Mets. Here is the pitching match-up:
Giants—Madison Bumgarner, 13.0 Box-Toppers points, ranked 19th among all players, 12th among NL pitchers.
Mets—Noah Syndergaard, 16.7 Box-Toppers points, ranked seventh among all players, fourth among NL pitchers.
Bumgarner and Syndergaard also both rank among the top 10 NL pitchers in Box-Toppers points over the past two seasons. Bumgarner has 30.0 points over 2015 and 2016, ranking seventh. Syndergaard has 27.1 points in that span, ranking 10th. Bumgarner also ranks third among pitchers in Box-Toppers points earned since the start of 2011—he has an even 100.0 points and trails only Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers (150.2), and Max Scherzer, Nationals (111.3). Syndergaard was a rookie in 2015.
The Mets are sixth in Box-Toppers team rankings with 119.1 accumulated points, third-most among NL teams. The Giants rank 10th, fifth among NL teams, with 112.7, the lowest-ranked team to qualify for the postseason. However, in the final 10 days of the season, the Giants were the slightly hotter team, picking up 8.7 Box-Toppers points, while the Mets picked up 6.7.
The Mets have two players among Box-Toppers top 10 NL batters:
- Outfielder Jay Bruce has 8.5 Box-Toppers points, ranking eighth.
- Outfielder Yoenis Cespedes has 8.0 Box-Toppers points, ranking 10th.
The Giants highest-ranking batter is first baseman Brandon Belt with 7.0 Box-Toppers points, ranking 18th among NL batters.
The winner of the NL Wild Card game will face the Chicago Cubs in the best-of-five NL Divisional Series beginning Friday in Chicago. The Cubs have baseball’s best winning percentage (.640) and rank first in Box-Toppers team rankings with 139.5 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.
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Giants vs. Mets
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 2016. 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.| San Francisco Giants | New York Mets | |||||
| Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | 16.4 | Syndergaard, Noah 3472 | pi sp | 16.7 | |
| Bumgarner, Madison 2753 | pi sp | 13.0 | Matz, Steven 3516 | pi sp | 12.1 | |
| Moore, Matt 2975 | pi sp | 12.4 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | 9.7 | |
| Samardzija, Jeff 2495 | pi sp | 10.7 | Bruce, Jay 2453 | rf | 8.5 | |
| Belt, Brandon 2943 | 1b | 7.0 | Colon, Bartolo | pi sp | 8.4 | |
| Panik, Joe 3401 | 2b | 5.5 | Cespedes, Yoenis 3008 | cf lf | 8.0 | |
| Nunez, Eduardo 2795 | 3b 2b ss | 5.5 | Familia, Jeurys 3446 | pi cp | 8.0 | |
| Peavy, Jake 1635 | pi sp | 5.0 | Conforto, Michael 3622 | lf | 5.0 | |
| Posey, Buster 2745 | ca 1b | 3.5 | Granderson, Curtis 2051 | rf cf ph | 4.5 | |
| Pence, Hunter 2287 | rf | 3.5 | Flores, Wilmer 3345 | 3b 1b 2b ph | 4.5 | |
| Casilla, Santiago 2301 | pi cp | 3.0 | Walker, Neil 2756 | 2b | 3.5 | |
| Kontos, George 3106 | pi cp mr | 3.0 | Harvey, Matt 3075 | pi sp | 3.0 | |
| Span, Denard 2502 | cf | 3.0 | Niese, Jonathon 2531 | pi sp | 2.0 | |
| Tomlinson, Kelby 3619 | 2b ph | 3.0 | Cabrera, Asdrubal 2362 | ss | 2.0 | |
| Cain, Matt 2081 | pi sp | 2.7 | Reed, Addison 3023 | pi mr | 2.0 | |
| Brown, Trevor 3610 | ca | 2.5 | Salas, Fernando 2853 | pi cp | 2.0 | |
| Crawford, Brandon 2878 | ss | 2.0 | Reyes, Jose 1759 | 3b ss | 2.0 | |
| Gillaspie, Conor 3218 | 3b ph | 2.0 | Loney, James 2206 | 1b ph | 2.0 | |
| Blach, Ty 3754 | pi sp | 2.0 | Reynolds, Matt 3650 | ss ph | 2.0 | |
| Law, Derek 3657 | pi sp mr | 2.0 | Smoker, Josh 3725 | pi cp mr | 2.0 | |
| Pagan, Angel 2184 | lf | 1.0 | Gsellman, Robert 3748 | pi sp | 1.7 | |
| Beckham, Gordon 2620 | 2b | 1.0 | De Aza, Alejandro 2950 | cf | 1.5 | |
| Strickland, Hunter 3546 | pi mr | 1.0 | Verrett, Logan 3518 | pi sp | 1.0 | |
| Okert, Steven 3745 | pi mr | 1.0 | Robles, Hansel 3580 | pi cp | 1.0 | |
| Osich, Josh 3677 | pi mr | 1.0 | d’Arnaud, Travis 3384 | ca | 1.0 | |
| Wright, David 1911 | 3b | 1.0 | ||||
| Goeddel, Erik 3672 | pi mr | 1.0 | ||||
| Lugo, Seth 3729 | pi sp | 1.0 | ||||
| Rivera, T.J. 3710 | 3b 2b | 1.0 | ||||
| Ynoa, Gabriel 3743 | pi sp | 1.0 | ||||
| Totals | 112.7 | Totals | 119.1 | |||