White Sox pitcher Chris Sale is Box-Toppers All-Star Game Player of the Day.
Sale pitched two perfect innings Tuesday, struck out two and earned the win as the American League beat the National League 3-0.
Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, pitching in his final All-Star Game, was named the game Most Valuable Player after pitching the eighth inning, allowing no hits and no runs.
Sure, picking Rivera, who is retiring after a brilliant and long career, is more a sentimental than logical choice. And choosing the top player in an All-Star Game is a bit of a fool's errand. The game has the feeling of a presidential ceremonial bill signing in which the president uses 15 different pens to sign a bill, so that key backers can each get a souvenir. This pen is used to make the "B," this to make the "a," and so on. In the All-Star Game, pitchers who are normally conditioned to throw seven to nine innings, are brought out to throw a ceremonial one or two innings—this one makes the "r," and this one makes the "a." In these conditions, it's hard to really determine who is the top player of the game any more than one can determine the pen that truly made the difference in the presidential bill signing.
For this year, we'll say Sale. True, his appearance was limited, but he did pitch two innings (scribbling the proverbial "c" and "k" of the presidential signature), more than any other AL pitcher.
Since it is the All-Star Game and it is an exhibition, no Box-Toppers points are awarded. (Sale has 10.7 Box-Toppers points for the season, ranking 10th among all players and third among AL pitchers.)
Following the results chart below, we'll show the process of how a Box-Toppers Player of the Game is determined, using Tuesday's All-Star Game as our example:
| 716 | Score | Team | BATTERS | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | - | - | PITCHERS | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MLB | 4.0 | American League | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Chris Sale (W, 1-0) | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Determining Box-Toppers Players of the Game
The chart below shows all players from the winning American League team who appeared in Tuesday's game. They are ranked in order of their Box-Toppers game score, from highest to lowest.
Sale, the top player, had a game score of 4.0. (How the Box-Toppers game score formula works.) Joe Nathan, Rangers closing pitcher, was in second with 2.0. The top batter was Jason Kipnis of the Indians with 1.0. He and Salvador Perez of the Royals had identical scores of 1.0, but Kipnis breaks the tie because he has more RBIs. Rivera, the game MVP, has a Box-Toppers game score of 1.0.
Moving down the list, 14 players had Box-Toppers game scores below 0.0.
| Score | Team | BATTERS | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | - | - | PITCHERS | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.0 | American League | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Chris Sale (W, 1-0) | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | American League | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Joe Nathan (S, 1) | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | American League | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Max Scherzer | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 1.1 | American League | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Brett Cecil (H, 1) | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 1.1 | American League | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Steve Delabar (H, 1) | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 1.0 | American League | Jason Kipnis 2B | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 1.0 | American League | Salvador Perez C | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 1.0 | American League | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Grant Balfour (H, 1) | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 1.0 | American League | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Matt Moore (H, 1) | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 1.0 | American League | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Mariano Rivera (H, 1) | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 0.0 | American League | Prince Fielder 1B | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 0.0 | American League | Jhonny Peralta SS | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 0.0 | American League | Jose Bautista RF | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 0.0 | American League | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Felix Hernandez (H, 1) | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 0.0 | American League | Robinson Cano 2B | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| -0.9 | American League | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Greg Holland (H, 1) | 0.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| -1.0 | American League | Miguel Cabrera 3B | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| -1.0 | American League | Adam Jones CF | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| -1.0 | American League | Joe Mauer C | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| -1.0 | American League | J.J. Hardy SS | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| -1.0 | American League | Torii Hunter PH, CF | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| -1.0 | American League | Manny Machado 3B | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| -1.0 | American League | Nelson Cruz RF | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| -1.0 | American League | Alex Gordon LF | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| -2.0 | American League | Mike Trout LF, CF | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| -2.0 | American League | Chris Davis 1B | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| -2.0 | American League | Dustin Pedroia PR, 2B | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| -2.0 | American League | David Ortiz DH | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| -2.0 | American League | Edwin Encarnacion PH, DH | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |