Pirates pitcher Gerrit Cole is Wednesday’s Player of the Day and rises to second place in Box-Toppers player rankings.
Cole struck out eight over six innings, allowing one run, in the 8-1 win over the Cubs. He earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 6.0 for the season.
While Cole has the same number of Box-Toppers points as overall leader Mariners pitcher Felix Hernandez, Cole is in second place in player rankings because he had fewer points in 2014—Hernandez had 20.8, Cole had 5.7.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2015 season as of April 29.| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Hernandez, Felix 2064 | pi sp | sea al | 6.0 |
| 2 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | pit nl | 6.0 |
| 3 | Archer, Chris 3194 | pi sp | tb al | 5.0 |
| 4 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 4.7 |
| 5 | Stanton, Giancarlo 2737 | rf | fla nl | 4.5 |
| 6 | Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | cin nl | 4.4 |
| 7 | Kazmir, Scott 1947 | pi sp | oak al | 3.7 |
| 8 | Cabrera, Miguel 1776 | 1b | det al | 3.7 |
| 9 | Harvey, Matt 3075 | pi sp | nym nl | 3.7 |
| 10 | DeSclafani, Anthony 3441 | pi sp | cin nl | 3.7 |
American League Player of the Day—Astros pitcher Dallas Keuchel allowed one run over eight innings in the 7-2 win over the Padres. Keuchel rose to fourth place in Box-Toppers player rankings. He earned 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day, giving him 4.7 for the season.
Keuchel had a Box-Toppers game score Wednesday of 7.0, tied with three other AL players—Orioles pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez, Red Sox pitcher Rick Porcello and Rays pitcher Drew Smyly. But Keuchel beat Smyly in a tiebreaker because he earned the win in his game, while Smyly had a no-decision. And Keuchel beat Jimenez and Porcello in a tiebreaker because he had more innings pitched—he had eight, while the other two both had seven.
National League League Batter of the Day—Ryan Braun of the Brewers hit two home runs, including a grand slam, and went 3-for-5, in the 8-3 win over the Reds.
American League Batter of the Day—Roberto Perez of the Indians homered, doubled and went 3-for-3 with three runs and two RBIs, in the 7-5 win over the Royals.
Rankings—Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers rose to eighth place in Box-Toppers player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Wednesday (2HR 2B 3-5 2R 4BI in the 10-7 win over the Twins). Cabrera earned 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 3.7 for the season. He leads all American League batters.
Cabrera now has 131.9 career Box-Toppers points and moves up to 25th among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers record keeping began. With Wednesday’s point, Cabrera passes Giants pitcher Jake Peavy (131.8 Box-Toppers points). Cabrera now trails Jason Giambi and David Ortiz (who both have 133.4)
Cabrera ranks ninth among all batters since 1995 and is the fourth-ranked active batter, behind Alex Rodriguez (181.8), Albert Pujols (167.3) and David Ortiz (133.4).
Scoring—Cole earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Keuchel earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day. Braun and Perez each earn 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Wednesday’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
| 4/29 | Score | Team | Player | AB | R | H | BI | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 9.0 | Pirates | Gerrit Cole (W, 4-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 | |
| 8.0 | Dbacks | Josh Collmenter (W, 2-3) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | ||
| AL | 7.0 | Astros | Dallas Keuchel (W, 3-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | |
| 7.0 | Orioles | Ubaldo Jimenez (W, 2-1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | ||
| 7.0 | Red Sox | Rick Porcello (W, 2-2) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | ||
| 7.0 | `Rays | Drew Smyly | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 10 | ||
| BAT | 5.0 | Brewers | Ryan Braun RF | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| BAT | 5.0 | Indians | Roberto Perez C | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 4.0 | Tigers | Miguel Cabrera 1B | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 4.0 | Angels | Mike Trout CF | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 4.0 | Marlins | Sam Dyson (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | Nationals | Danny Espinosa 3B | 5 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.1 | `Mariners | Danny Farquhar (H, 4) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 2.0 | `Cardinals | Jordan Walden (H, 8) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 1.0 | Dodgers | Scott Van Slyke LF | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| `Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save. | ||||||||||||||||