The New York Yankees visit the Boston Red Sox in the American League one-game Wild Card playoff game Tuesday.
Starting pitchers are:
Yankees—Gerrit Cole, 22.4 Box-Toppers points in 2021, second among all players and first among American League pitchers. Cole is also the top Yankees player in 2021’s Box-Toppers season player rankings.
Red Sox—Nathan Eovaldi, 14.1 Box-Toppers points in 2021, 16th among all players and sixth among AL pitchers.
The Yankees rank sixth in Box-Toppers team rankings with its players accumulating 119.8 Box-Toppers points during the season, second among all AL teams.
The Red Sox rank ninth among all teams with 115.9 points, fifth among AL teams. Interestingly, the Red Sox rank fourth among all AL East teams, behind the Yankees (119.8), the AL East champion Tampa Bay Rays (116.4) and the non-playoff qualifying Toronto Blue Jays (116.0).
The Red Sox and Yankees had identical 92-70 win-loss records to finish second and third in the AL, with the Red Sox holding the tiebreaking advantage to host the AL Wild Card game because they took the season series from the Yankees, 10-9.
Cole is the only Yankee with more than 10 Box-Toppers points. The Red Sox have three players with more than 10 points. In addition to starter Eovaldi, they are:
Designated hitter J.D. Martinez with 10.7 points, 40th overall, second among AL batters.
Starting pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez with 10.0 points, 47th overall, 17th among AL pitchers.
Martinez is the Red Sox’ top-ranked batter. Yankees’ top-ranked batter is right fielder Aaron Judge with 9.0 points, 60th among all players and fourth among AL batters.
The Yankees closed the season with more Box-Toppers points than the Red Sox in the final 10 days of the season. They earned 7.0 points between Sept. 24 and Oct. 3. Despite that point gain, they fell from fifth place overall on Sept. 23 to sixth place to close the season. The Red Sox gained 4.7 points in the season’s final 10 days and fell two spots in overall rankings from seventh on Sept. 23 to ninth on Oct. 3, falling behind both the late-charging Rays and Blue Jays. Still, there are only 0.5 Box-Toppers points separating the Rays, Blue Jays and Red Sox and there are only 3.9 points separating the four top AL East teams.
The winner of the AL Wild Card game will face the Rays in the best-of-five AL Division Series beginning Thursday in Tampa Bay. The Rays are Box-Toppers seventh-ranked team overall with 116.4 Box-Toppers 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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Yankees vs. Red Sox
Here are players for both teams in the AL Wild Card Game Tuesday. 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, such as D.J. LeMahieu of the Yankees, earned no Box-Toppers points in 2021.| New York Yankees | Boston Red Sox | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Pos | BTP | Player | Pos | BTP | |
| Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | 22.4 | Eovaldi, Nathan 2928 | pi sp | 14.1 | |
| Montgomery, Jordan 3814 | pi sp | 9.7 | Martinez, J.D. 2922 | dh | 10.7 | |
| Judge, Aaron 3767 | rf | 9.0 | Rodriguez, Eduardo 3480 | pi sp | 10.0 | |
| Taillon, Jameson 3658 | pi sp | 9.0 | Bogaerts, Xander 3383 | ss | 8.5 | |
| Stanton, Giancarlo 2737 | dh | 6.0 | Devers, Rafael 4038 | 3b | 7.5 | |
| Gallo, Joey 3485 | rf lf | 5.5 | Houck, Tanner 4342 | pi sp | 6.0 | |
| Heaney, Andrew 3515 | pi sp | 5.0 | Renfroe, Hunter 3749 | rf | 6.0 | |
| Green, Chad 3675 | pi mr cp | 5.0 | Dalbec, Bobby 4403 | 1b | 5.4 | |
| Cortes, Nestor Jr. 4160 | pi sp | 5.0 | Pivetta, Nick 3825 | pi sp | 5.0 | |
| Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | 5.0 | Barnes, Matt 3466 | pi cp mr | 5.0 | |
| German, Domingo 3957 | pi sp | 4.7 | Schwarber, Kyle 3536 | lf | 4.5 | |
| Chapman, Aroldis 2826 | pi cp | 4.0 | Ottavino, Adam 3054 | pi mr | 4.0 | |
| Voit, Luke 4053 | 1b | 3.0 | Hernandez, Enrique (Kike) 3541 | cf 2b ss | 3.5 | |
| Urshela, Gio 4135 | 3b ss ph | 3.0 | Verdugo, Alex 4129 | rf lf | 3.5 | |
| Higashioka, Kyle 4505 | ca ph | 2.5 | Whitlock, Garrett 4431 | pi mr cp | 3.0 | |
| Peralta, Wandy 3782 | pi mr cp | 2.0 | Shaw, Travis 3544 | 3b dh | 2.5 | |
| Sanchez, Gary 3701 | ca | 2.0 | Arroyo, Christian 4433 | 2b ph | 2.5 | |
| Andujar, Miguel 3839 | lf dh 3b pr | 2.0 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | 2.0 | |
| Rizzo, Anthony 3063 | 1b | 2.0 | Robles, Hansel 3580 | pi mr cp | 2.0 | |
| Loaisiga, Jonathan 3998 | pi mr | 2.0 | Valdez, Phillips 4485 | pi mr | 1.7 | |
| Luetge, Lucas 3274 | pi mr | 2.0 | Arauz, Jonathan 4363 | 2b ss | 1.5 | |
| Odor, Rougned 3336 | 2b | 1.0 | Richards, Garrett 3042 | pi sp mr | 1.0 | |
| Frazier, Clint 3847 | rf lf | 1.0 | Vazquez, Christian 3380 | ca | 1.0 | |
| Gardner, Brett 2486 | cf ph | 1.0 | Iglesias, Jose 3532 | ss | 1.0 | |
| Severino, Luis 3567 | pi mr sp | 1.0 | Cordero, Franchy 3821 | lf pr | 1.0 | |
| Holmes, Clay 4022 | pi mr sp | 1.0 | Perez, Martin 3213 | pi sp | 1.0 | |
| Garcia, Luis 3300 | pi mr | 1.0 | De Leon, Jose 4370 | pi sp | 1.0 | |
| Gil, Luis 4498 | pi sp | 1.0 | Sawamura, Hirokazu 4389 | pi mr | 1.0 | |
| King, Michael 4549 | pi mr | 1.0 | ||||
| Wade, Tyler 4487 | dh 3b pr | 1.0 | ||||