Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. is Box-Toppers Player of the Game as Houston eliminates the New York Yankees in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series Saturday.
ALCS Game 7: Astros 4, Yankees 0
McCullers pitched four innings of scoreless relief, striking out six and allowing one hit and one walk and earning the save, as the Astros won the best-of-seven game series, 4-3.
The AL champion Astros now face the National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series beginning Tuesday in Los Angeles.
McCullers had 9.4 Box-Toppers points in the regular season, 49th among all players and 16th among AL pitchers.
McCullers had a Box-Toppers game score Saturday of +8.0, highest among Astros players. McCullers, normally a starter, was put in the somewhat unusual role as long relief pitcher. Essentially, he was the second starter, picking up the shutout where Astros starter Charlie Morton left off.
McCullers just beat Morton’s Box-Toppers game score Saturday. Over the first five innings, Morton had a Box-Toppers game score of +7.0 (5IP 2H 0R BB 5K W). Brian McCann had the highest Box-Toppers game score among Astros batters of +1.0 (2B 1-2 0R 2BI). Yankees starter CC Sabathia had a Box-Toppers game score of -6.9 (3.1IP 5H R 3BB 0K L).
The Astros rank fourth in Box-Toppers team rankings with its players accumulating 131.7 Box-Toppers points in 2017. They ranked second among all AL teams, behind the Cleveland Indians (140.9), the team the Yankees eliminated in the AL Division Series. The Yankees rank just behind the Astros, fifth among all teams and third among AL teams, with 121.7 points.
Justin Verlander, named ALCS Most Valuable Player, was Box-Toppers Player of the Game in two of the Astros wins in the series—Game 2 and Game 6. Dallas Keuchel was Box-Toppers Player of the Game in the Astros win in Game 1.
See Box-Toppers ALCS 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
| BTG | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| 8.0 | HOU 4, NYY 0 | Lance McCullers Jr. S (1) | - | - | - | - | 4.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
Box-Toppers
Tracking who most helps their teams win the most games, based on box score stats. A method to measure & compare baseball's top players.
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. Players earn Box-Toppers points 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.