Dodgers pitcher Julio Urias is Box-Toppers Player of the Game in Thursday’s National League Division Series Game 5 win over the Giants.
The Dodgers beat the Giants 2-1, winning the best-of-five game series, 3-2, and advance to the NL Championship Series against the Atlanta Braves, beginning Saturday.
Urias struck out five over four innings, allowing one run, three hits and no walks. Urias did not earn the win, picking up a no-decision, because the game was tied, 1-1, when he exited.
Urias had a Box-Toppers game score Thursday of +4.0, best among all Dodgers players. He had been listed as Thursday’s starting pitcher but the Dodgers instead went with an opening pitcher (Corey Knebel, normally a reliever) to start. Urias then came on in relief, pitching from the third to the sixth innings. Knebel had a game score of +1.0 (1IP H 0R 0BB K ND).
This is Urias’s second Player of the Game honor of the 2021 postseason. He was also top player in the NLDS Game 2 win over the Giants on Saturday (5IP 3H R BB 5K W). He is the first player to earn multiple Player of the Game honors in the 2021 postseason. In the 2020 postseason, Urias won Player of the Game honors four times, most of any player, including in the deciding World Series Game 6.
Two other Dodgers relievers each had game scores of +3.0: Kenley Jansen, normally the team’s closer, who pitched the eighth inning (1IP 0H 0R 0BB 2K W) and Max Scherzer, normally the team’s ace starter, serving Thursday as the closer, pitching the ninth inning (1IP 0H 0R 0BB 2K Sv). Scherzer was Box-Toppers Player of the Year, earning the most Box-Toppers points of any player in 2021, 25.1.
Dodgers top batter was Mookie Betts with a game score of +1.0 (4-4 R 0BI). Giants starting Logan Webb had the best game score of any player in the game (+7.0) in the loss (7IP 4H R BB 7K ND).
The Dodgers, though they are a Wild Card team, are far and away Box-Toppers’ top-ranked team with 146.7 Box-Toppers points. The Giants, now eliminated, rank third with 124.6, behind the second-place Chicago White Sox (124.9). While the Giants led the Dodgers in the NL West most of the season and ended winning the division by one game with baseball’s best winning percentage (.660), they never ranked particularly high in Box-Toppers team rankings through the season.
The Dodgers were Box-Toppers’ 2021 preseason top-ranked team and held the overall lead early in the season in April before slumping in May. They regained their lead in July and especially at the trade deadline, picking up Max Scherzer and Trea Turner from the Nationals. After that, they took the overall Box-Toppers points lead and expanded it through the end of the season.
However, at season’s end, the Giants came on strong. In the season’s final 10 days, the Giants picked up 10.5 Box-Toppers points, the most of any team, boosting them from fourth to third place, their highest position of the season. Despite that impressive performance, the Giants didn’t pick up much ground on the Dodgers, as their NL West rivals gained 10.2 points from Sept. 24 to Oct. 3, the second-best point gain to the Giants over that span.
The Dodgers now face the Braves in the NL Championship Series beginning Saturday in Atlanta. The Braves are fifth in overall Box-Toppers team rankings with 122.4 Box-Toppers points, fourth among NL teams behind the Dodgers (146.7), the Giants (124.6) and the Milwaukee Brewers (122.8).
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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Box-Toppers Player of the Game winners
Here is the top player from each of the day’s games listed from highest to lowest Box‑Toppers game score (BTG).| BTG | Game | Player | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| +4.0 | `LAD 2, SF 1 | Julio Urías | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 4.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
` Pitcher had a no‑decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save.