Wednesday’s American League Championship Series Game 4 in New York was postponed by rain and rescheduled for Thursday.
The Houston Astros lead the New York Yankees in the best-of-seven game series, 2-1.
The Astros are overwhelmingly the top team in Box-Toppers team rankings, with its players accumulating 158.1 Box-Toppers points. The Yankees had 123.4 points ranked fifth overall. The second-ranked team, the National League champion Washington Nationals, had 132.9 Box-Toppers points, still 25.2 points behind the Astros. Only two players this season earned at least 25.2 points and both are Astros—Gerrit Cole (32.2) and Justin Verlander (27.2).
The ALCS is set to play Game 5 in New York on Friday, on what would have been a travel day and resume on Game 6, if necessary, in Houston on Saturday.
Coming Thursday:
ALCS Game 4: Astros lead Yankees, 2-1
The pitching matchup Thursday is a rematch of Game 1 won by the Yankees:
Astros—Zack Greinke, 17.9 Box-Toppers points, seventh among all players, fifth among AL pitchers.
This is Greinke’s third 2019 postseason appearance—he has not earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors this postseason. On Oct. 7, he appeared in the AL Division Series Game 3 loss to the Rays, in which Rays pitcher Charlie Morton earned Player of the Game honors. On Oct. 12, he appeared in the ALCS Game 1 loss to the Yankees, in which Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka earned Player of the Game.
Yankees—Masahiro Tanaka, 9.7 Box-Toppers points, 52nd among all players, 20th among AL pitchers.
This is Tanaka’s third 2019 postseason appearance. He is one of five players to earn Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors at least twice this postseason. On Oct. 5, he was Player of the Game in the AL Division Series Game 2 win against the Twins. On Oct. 12, he was Player of the Game in the ALCS Game 1 win over the Astros.
The other players to earn Player of the Game honors at least twice this postseason are Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg (three times), Astros pitcher Gerrit Cole (three times), Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer (twice) and Astros pitcher Justin Verlander (twice).
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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