Walker Buehler of the Dodgers and Marcell Ozuna of the Cardinals are Box-Toppers Players of the Game in Thursday’s pair of National League Division Series openers.
Buehler struck out eight over six scorless innings, allowing one hit and three walks, in the 6-0 win over the Nationals. The Dodgers now lead the Nationals 1-0 in the best-of-five-game series.
Buehler had 16.4 Box-Toppers points in 2019, 13th among all players, seventh among NL pitchers and second among all Dodgers players.
Buehler had a Box-Toppers game score Thursday of +10.0. Dodgers top batter in the game was pinch hitter and rightfielder Joc Pederson (HR 1-1 2R BI), with a Box-Toppers game score of +3.0.
St. Louis 7, Atlanta 6—In the other NLDS Game 1, leftfielder Marcell Ozuna was Player of the Game, hitting two doubles, going 2-for-4, scoring once and driving in two runs.
The Cardinals now lead the Braves 1-0 in the best-of-five-game series.
Ozuna had 12.0 Box-Toppers points on the season, 29th among all players and first among NL batters.
Ozuna had a Box-Toppers game score Thursday of +1.0. Paul Goldschmidt of the Cardinals also had a game score of +1.0 and had as many at bats (2-4 2R BI), but Ozuna won Player of the Game on a tiebreaker because he had more runs batted in (two vs. one).
Cardinals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas had a Box-Toppers game score of 0.0 (5IP 3H R BB 2K ND). Cardinals closer Carlos Martinez, who earned the win, had a Box-Toppers game score of -5.9 (1.1IP 2H 3R BB 2K W), lowest among all St. Louis players Thursday.
Top player from each game
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score (BTG)| BTG | Game | Player | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| +10.0 | LAD 6, WSH 0 | Walker Buehler (W, 1‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 | |
| +1.0 | STL 7, ATL 6 | Marcell Ozuna LF | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ |
` Pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save.
NL Division Series Game 2, Cardinals lead Braves, 1-0
The pitching matchup Friday:
Cardinals—Jack Flaherty, 16.5 Box-Toppers points, 11th among all players, fifth among NL pitchers.
Braves—Mike Foltynewicz, 5.0 Box-Toppers points, 166th among all players, 58th among NL pitchers.
NL Division Series Game 2, Dodgers lead Nationals, 1-0
Nationals—Stephen Strasburg, 20.7 Box-Toppers points, third among all players, first among NL pitchers.
Dodgers—Clayton Kershaw, 12.7 Box-Toppers points, 25th among all players, 14th among NL pitchers.
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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