Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to 12th among National League pitchers in Box-Toppers points.
Strasburg pitched eight scoreless innings, allowing one hit and striking out 14, in the 4-0 win over the Phillies.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2015 season as of Sept. 15.| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 22.7 |
| 2 | Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | chi nl | 22.1 |
| 3 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 20.4 |
| 4 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | lad nl | 19.7 |
| 5 | Hernandez, Felix 2064 | pi sp | sea al | 19.4 |
| 6 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 19.4 |
| 7 | Price, David 2593 | pi sp | tor al | 19.1 |
| 8 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | chi al | 17.1 |
| 9 | Bumgarner, Madison 2753 | pi sp | sf nl | 17.0 |
| 10 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 17.0 |
Strasburg earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points, giving him 11.0 for the season and rises to 26th place among all players. He becomes the 37th player this season with 10.0 or more Box-Toppers points.
His Box-Toppers game score of 20.0 is only the sixth time a player has had a score that high this season. The highest Box-Toppers game score of the season was 25.0 by Indians pitcher Corey Kluber on May 13 (8IP H 0R 18K).
American League Player of the Day—Josh Reddick of Athletics hit a two-run homer an went 2-for-4, scoring three times and driving in four runs, in the 17-6 win over the White Sox.
Reddick earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day, giving him 8.2 for the season and rising to 10th among AL batters.
National League Batter of the Day—Dee Gordon of the Marlins hit a two-run homer and went 4-for-5, scoring twice and driving in two runs, in the 9-3 win over the Mets.
American League Batter of the Day—There is no separate AL Batter of the Day for Tuesday because the overall AL Player of the Day is batter Josh Reddick.
Notable—Two other NL pitchers who earned Player of the Game honors Tuesday achieved notable milestones:
- Cardinals pitcher Carlos Martinez (8IP 4H R 9K ND in the 3-1, 10-inning win over the Brewers) rose ninth place among NL pitchers in Box-Toppers points. Martinez earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 13.7 for the season. He ranks 16th among all players.
- Cubs pitcher Jon Lester (CG 5H R 9K W in the 2-1 win over the Pirates) became the 38th player with 10.0 or more Box-Toppers points this season. Lester earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 10.0 for the season. He ranks 15th among NL pitchers and 33rd among all players. Lester also rises to 37th place in career Box-Toppers point among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers record keeping began. Lester has 119.1 career points and passes Cliff Lee (119.1) on the “all-time” list (Lester beats Lee on a tiebreaker—he has more Box-Toppers points this season—10 vs. 0). Lester trails 36th-place player Cole Hamels (122.5).
Debut—Two players made their Box-Toppers debut Tuesday, the first time in their career they earned Player of the Game honors.
- Rockies pitcher Jairo Diaz (1IP 0H 0R 2K ND in the 5-4, 16-inning win over the Dodgers) made his Major League debut Sept. 8, 2014, and was playing in his 18th career game. He is the 3,592nd player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
- Ramon Cabrera of the Reds (1-1 2BI in the 9-8, 10-inning win over the Giants) made his Major League debut Sept. 5 and was playing in his sixth career game. He is the 3,593rd player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Scoring—Strasburg earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Reddick earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day. Gordon earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being NL Batter of the Day. All of Tuesday’s other Players of the Game (listed in the chart below) earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point.
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.
Top player from each game
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score
| 9/15 | Score | Team | Player | AB | R | H | BI | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 20.0 | Nationals | Stephen Strasburg (W,9-7) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 14 | |
| 10.0 | Cubs | Jon Lester (W,10-10) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 9.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | ||
| 9.0 | `Cardinals | Carlos Martinez | - | - | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 | ||
| AL | 5.0 | Athletics | Josh Reddick, RF | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| BAT | 3.0 | Marlins | Dee Gordon, 2B | 5 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | Angels | Joe Smith (S,3) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 3.0 | Pirates | Mark Melancon (S,46) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | `Rockies | Jairo Diaz (MR) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | Rangers | Adrian Beltre, 3B | 5 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | Rays | Nick Franklin, SS | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | Reds | Ramon Cabrera, PH | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.1 | Dbacks | Brad Ziegler (S,26) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 1.0 | Tigers | Victor Martinez, DH | 4 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | Braves | Todd Cunningham, PR | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 0.1 | Royals | Kris Medlen (W,4-1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 0.0 | Orioles | Manny Machado, 3B | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| `Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save. | ||||||||||||||||