Red Sox Steven Wright is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2016 season as of May 8:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 7.0 |
| 2 | Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | chi nl | 6.0 |
| 3 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | chi al | 5.7 |
| 4 | Machado, Manny 3087 | 3b ss | bal al | 5.7 |
| 5 | Quintana, Jose 3040 | pi sp | chi al | 5.7 |
| 6 | Hill, Rich 2215 | pi sp | oak al | 5.4 |
| 7 | Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | sf nl | 5.0 |
| 8 | Altuve, Jose 3007 | 2b | hou al | 5.0 |
| 9 | Matz, Steven 3516 | pi sp | nym nl | 5.0 |
| 10 | Velasquez, Vince 3611 | pi sp | phi nl | 5.0 |
Also Sunday, Manny Machado of the Orioles earned American League Batter of the Day and rises to fourth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings, first among AL batters.
Player of the Day—Wright pitched a complete-game three-hitter, striking out seven and allowing one run, in the 5-1 win over the Yankees.
National League Player of the Day—Dodgers pitcher Ross Stripling struck out six over six innings, allowing one run and one hit, in the 4-2 win over the Blue Jays. Stripling did not earn the win, picking up a no-decision, because he exited the game with the Dodgers trailing 1-0.
This was Stripling’s Box-Toppers debut, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. He made his Major League debut April 8 and was playing in his sixth career game. He is the 3,629th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
American League Batter of the Day—Machado hit two home runs, including a grand slam, in the 11-3 win over the Athletics. Machado also went 2-for-4 and drove in six runs.
Machado earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being AL Batter of the Day, giving him 5.7 for the season, rising to fourth among all players this season and first among AL batters.
National League Batter of the Day—John Jaso of the Pirates homered, doubled and went 3-for-4, driving in two runs, in the 10-5 win over the Cardinals.
Jaso had a Box-Toppers game score of +2, the same as Jonathan Lucroy of the Brewers, who was Player of the Game in the 5-4 win over the Reds (HR 2B 3-4 R 2BI). Jaso and Lucroy had very similar batting lines and Jaso won NL Batter of the Day honors on a low-level tiebreaker—he left fewer runners on base—0 vs. 1.
Rankings—White Sox pitcher Jose Quintana rose to fifth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Sunday.
Quintana (7IP 6H R 5K W in the 3-1 win over the Twins) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 5.7 for the season. He ranks second among AL pitchers, behind teammate Chris Sale, who has the same Box-Toppers point total (5.7) but ranks ahead of Quintana because he had more 2015 Box-Toppers points—18.8 vs. 6.0.
Scoring—Wright earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Stripling earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Machado and Jaso each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Sunday’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
| 5/8 | Score | Team | Player | AB | R | H | BI | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 10.0 | Red Sox | Steven Wright (W,3-3) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 9.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | |
| NL | 9.0 | `Dodgers | Ross Stripling | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | |
| BAT | 6.0 | Orioles | Manny Machado, SS | 4 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 6.0 | Mets | Matt Harvey (W,3-4) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10 | ||
| 6.0 | Rockies | Eddie Butler (W,1-1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | ||
| 6.0 | `Dbacks | Patrick Corbin | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | ||
| 4.0 | Rangers | Bobby Wilson, C | 4 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 4.0 | Astros | Collin McHugh (W,4-3) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||
| 3.0 | White Sox | Jose Quintana (W,5-1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||
| 2.2 | `Indians | Bryan Shaw | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | ||
| BAT | 2.0 | Pirates | John Jaso, 1B | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 2.0 | Brewers | Jonathan Lucroy, C | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | `Cubs | Trevor Cahill | - | - | - | - | - | - | 3.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | Phillies | Jeanmar Gomez (S,11) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | Rays | Alex Colome (S, 9) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| `Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save. | ||||||||||||||||
Box-Toppers point totals of the day’s top players
Here are Box-Toppers point totals of each of the Players of the Game. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (16). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (15-16), the period 2011-2016 (11-16) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2016 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2015 total (+/-).| Player | Pos | Team | 16 | 15-16 | 11-16 | Career | +/- |
| Machado, Manny 3087 | 3b ss | bal al | 5.7 | 13.2 | 16.7 | 16.7 | -1.8 |
| Quintana, Jose 3040 | pi sp | chi al | 5.7 | 11.7 | 30.5 | 30.5 | -0.3 |
| Wright, Steven 3224 | pi sp | bos al | 3.0 | 6.7 | 7.7 | 7.7 | -0.7 |
| Colome, Alex 3189 | pi cp | tb al | 2.0 | 7.0 | 10.7 | 10.7 | -3.0 |
| Lucroy, Jonathan 2744 | ca | mil nl | 2.0 | 3.7 | 22.6 | 23.6 | 0.3 |
| Shaw, Bryan 2995 | pi mr | cle al | 2.0 | 3.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 1.0 |
| Stripling, Ross 3629 | pi sp | lad nl | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.7 |
| Jaso, John 2705 | 1b ca | pit nl | 1.5 | 1.5 | 6.5 | 12.5 | 1.5 |
| Harvey, Matt 3075 | pi sp | nym nl | 1.0 | 16.4 | 34.4 | 34.4 | -14.4 |
| McHugh, Collin 3316 | pi sp | hou al | 1.0 | 10.7 | 22.5 | 22.5 | -8.7 |
| Corbin, Patrick 3027 | pi sp | ari nl | 1.0 | 6.4 | 29.8 | 29.8 | -4.4 |
| Cahill, Trevor 2658 | pi mr | chi nl | 1.0 | 2.0 | 25.1 | 38.2 | 0.0 |
| Butler, Eddie 3483 | pi sp | col nl | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 |
| Gomez, Jeanmar 2759 | pi cp | phi nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 6.0 | 8.0 | 1.0 |
| Wilson, Bobby 3071 | ca | tex al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 1.0 |