The St. Louis Cardinals visit the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League one-game Wild Card playoff game Wednesday.
Starting pitchers are:
Cardinals—Adam Wainwright, 12.0 Box-Toppers points in 2021, 29th among all players and 18th among NL pitchers. Wainwright is also the top Cardinals player in 2021’s Box-Toppers season player rankings.
Dodgers—Max Scherzer, 25.1 Box-Toppers points in 2021, first among all players and first among NL pitchers.
Though they are a Wild Card team and subject to a one-game elimination game, the Dodgers far and away led Box-Toppers team rankings in 2021. Its players accumulated 146.7 Box-Toppers points during the season, 21.8 points more than the second-ranked Chicago White Sox and 22.1 more than the second-ranked NL team, the San Francisco Giants. The Dodgers actually finished a game behind the Giants in the NL West despite having substantially more Box-Toppers points.
The Cardinals, by contrast, rank 13th in Box-Toppers team rankings with 105.4 Box-Toppers points, the lowest-ranking among the 10 teams that qualified for the postseason. The Cardinals ranked behind three teams that did not qualify for the postseason—the Toronto Blue Jays (eighth overall with 116.0 points), the San Diego Padres (11th overall with 108.1 points) and the Philadelphia Phillies (12th overall with 106.6 points).
Though the Dodgers have a huge advantage in Box-Toppers points, not all of those players who boosted them through the season will be available in the postseason. Pitcher Clayton Kershaw (13.4 Box-Toppers points, 19th among all players) is injured and has indicated he is likely unavailable during the postseason. Pitcher Trevor Bauer earned 9.4 Box-Toppers points (currently 28th among NL pitchers) before being placed on leave in July by baseball for investigation into sexual assault allegations. His leave has been extended to last through the postseason. Dodgers’ top batter Max Muncy (6.0 Box-Toppers points, 23rd among NL batters) will be unavailable for the Wild Card Game after injuring his elbow in the final regular season game Sunday.
The Dodgers got a huge boost at the July 30 trade deadline, acquiring Scherzer and shortstop Trea Turner from the Nationals. Scherzer had 10.7 points at the time and Turner had 1.0, which helped propel the Dodgers from second to first in team rankings, a lead they held and widened as the season progressed. Scherzer fueled the boom, earning 14.4 points in the final two months of the season.
Three active Dodgers pitchers are among the top 10 in overall Box-Toppers player rankings—Scherzer (first with 25.1), Julio Urias (fourth with 19.1) and Walker Buehler (10th with 16.7). With Kershaw (19th with 13.4), the Dodgers had four players with 10 or more Box-Toppers points in 2021.
By contrast, the Cardinals have just one player with 10 or more points—Wednesday’s starter Wainwright (12.0, 29th among all players and 18th among NL pitchers).
Cardinals’ second-ranked player is also their top batter, third baseman Nolan Arenado with 9.0 Box-Toppers points, fourth among NL batters. Cardinals’ first baseman Paul Goldschmidt also has 9.0 Box-Toppers points, but ranks behind Arenado in fifth among NL batters, because he has fewer 2020 Box-Toppers points–0.0 vs. 1.0.
The Dodgers even closed the season with the second-best final 10-game stretch among all teams. The Dodgers gained 10.2 points between Sept. 24 and Oct. 3; only their NL West counterpart Giants earned more points (10.5) in that span. The Cardinals also finished relatively strong, picking up 8.5 points in the final 10 days of the season, the fifth-most among all teams.
The winner of the NL Wild Card game will face the top-seeded NL team, the Giants in the best-of-five NL Divisional Series beginning Friday in San Francisco. The Giants are Box-Toppers third-ranked team overall with 124.6 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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Cardinals vs. Dodgers
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 2021. 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. Players not listed earned no Box-Toppers points in 2021.| St. Louis Cardinals | Los Angeles Dodgers | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Pos | BTP | Player | Pos | BTP | |
| Wainwright, Adam 2150 | pi sp | 12.0 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | 25.1 | |
| Arenado, Nolan 3306 | 3b | 9.0 | Urias, Julio 3652 | pi sp | 19.1 | |
| Goldschmidt, Paul 2935 | 1b | 9.0 | Buehler, Walker 3943 | pi sp | 16.7 | |
| O’Neill, Tyler 4074 | lf | 8.0 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | 13.4 | |
| Reyes, Alex 3706 | pi cp | 6.7 | Bauer, Trevor 3065 | pi sp | 9.4 | |
| Flaherty, Jack 3971 | pi sp | 6.0 | Muncy, Max 3969 | 1b 2b | 6.0 | |
| Happ, J.A. 2536 | pi sp | 5.7 | Jansen, Kenley 2871 | pi cp | 6.0 | |
| Kim, Kwang Hyun 4305 | pi sp | 5.0 | Gonsolin, Tony 4211 | pi sp | 4.7 | |
| Woodford, Jake 4293 | pi sp mr | 5.0 | Taylor, Chris 3684 | ss | 4.7 | |
| Molina, Yadier 1967 | ca | 4.5 | Duffy, Danny 2915 | pi sp | 4.0 | |
| Gallegos, Giovanny 4104 | pi mr | 4.0 | Pollock, AJ 3142 | lf | 3.0 | |
| Martinez, Carlos 3371 | pi sp | 4.0 | Betts, Mookie 3404 | cf rf | 3.0 | |
| Edman, Tommy 4255 | 2b | 3.5 | Treinen, Blake 3495 | pi mr cp | 3.0 | |
| Nootbaar, Lars 4507 | rf ph | 3.5 | Turner, Justin 2865 | 3b | 2.7 | |
| Lester, Jon 2173 | pi sp | 3.0 | Turner, Trea 3730 | ss 2b | 2.5 | |
| Carlson, Dylan 4359 | rf cf | 3.0 | Seager, Corey 3587 | ss | 2.0 | |
| Bader, Harrison 4071 | cf | 3.0 | Smith, Will 4175 | ca | 2.0 | |
| DeJong, Paul 3827 | ss | 2.5 | Pujols, Albert 1438 | 1b ph | 2.0 | |
| Sosa, Edmundo 4495 | ss | 2.5 | Price, David 2593 | pi cp mr sp | 2.0 | |
| Carpenter, Matt 2987 | 3b 1b ph | 1.5 | Kelly, Joe 3066 | pi mr cp sp | 2.0 | |
| Hudson, Dakota 4035 | pi sp | 1.0 | Graterol, Brusdar 4249 | pi mr | 2.0 | |
| Cabrera, Genesis 4348 | pi mr cp | 1.0 | Nelson, Jimmy 3299 | pi mr sp | 2.0 | |
| Oviedo, Johan 4442 | pi sp | 1.0 | White, Mitch 4519 | pi cp | 2.0 | |
| Rondon, Jose 4563 | ph | 1.0 | May, Dustin 4214 | pi sp | 1.7 | |
| Bellinger, Cody 3781 | cf | 1.7 | ||||
| Lux, Gavin 4247 | 2b 3b | 1.0 | ||||
| Gonzalez, Victor 4313 | pi mr | 1.0 | ||||
| Bickford, Phil 4436 | pi cp | 1.0 | ||||
| Vesia, Alex 4504 | pi mr | 1.0 | ||||