Pirates pitcher Gerrit Cole is Friday’s Player of the Day and rises to second place in Box-Toppers player rankings.
Also Friday, Mariners pitcher Felix Hernandez extended his overall player rankings lead and Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer rose to third place in player rankings.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2015 season as of May 22.| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Hernandez, Felix 2064 | pi sp | sea al | 9.7 |
| 2 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | pit nl | 8.0 |
| 3 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 7.0 |
| 4 | Archer, Chris 3194 | pi sp | tb al | 7.0 |
| 5 | Miller, Shelby 3134 | pi sp | atl nl | 7.0 |
| 6 | Harvey, Matt 3075 | pi sp | nym nl | 6.7 |
| 7 | Harper, Bryce 3011 | lf rf | dc nl | 6.5 |
| 8 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 5.7 |
| 9 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 5.7 |
| 10 | Lincecum, Tim 2288 | pi sp | sf nl | 5.7 |
Player of the Day—Cole struck out 10 over 8 1/3 innings and allowed one run in the 4-1 win over the Mets. Cole earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 8.0 for the season, rising to second in Box-Toppers player rankings. He passes Braves pitcher Shelby Miller (7.0 Box-Toppers points) to lead National League pitchers on the season.
American League Player of the Day—White Sox pitcher Jeff Samardzija struck out nine over eight innings and allowed two runs in the 3-2 win over the Twins.
American League Batter of the Day—Kendrys Morales of the Royals homered twice and drove in five runs, going 3-for-4, in the 5-0 win over the Cardinals.
National League Batter of the Day—Ryan Braun of the Brewers homered, hit two doubles and drove in four runs, going 3-for-3 and scoring twice, in the 11-0 win over the Braves.
Leader—Mariners pitcher Felix Hernandez maintained his top spot in Box-Toppers player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Friday.
Hernandez (7IP R 8K W in the 4-3 win over the Blue Jays) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 9.7 for the season. He has led player rankings all but six days this season (Adam Wainwright of the Cardinals led April 5, Scott Kazmir of the Athletics led from April 13 to 17).
Hernandez now has 153.0 career Box-Toppers points, 15th among all players since 1995 when Box-Toppers record keeping began. He is just behind Barry Bonds (153.2) and Tim Hudson (154.0). Hernandez’s 153.0 career points ranks third among active pitchers currently in the AL, behind CC Sabathia of the Yankees (174.3) and Johan Santana of the Blue Jays (166.6).
Rankings—Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer rose to third place in Box-Toppers player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Friday. Scherzer (8IP R 6K W in the 2-1 win over the Phillies) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 7.0 for the season. While Scherzer and two other players have 7.0 points this season, Scherzer holds the tiebreaker because he had more points in 2014—Scherzer (22.1), Chris Archer (12.4), Shelby Miller (9.0).
Notable—Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke rises to 27th place in Box-Toppers points since 1995, when record keeping began, after earning Player of the Game honors Friday.
Grienke (7.2IP R 5K ND in the 2-1 win over the Padres) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 5.0 for the season and 130.7 for his career. With his point Friday, he passes Trevor Hoffman (129.4) in Box-Toppers points earned since 1995. Greinke now trails Jake Peavy (131.8) on that list.
Scoring—Cole earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Samardzija earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day. Morales and Braun each earn 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Friday’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
| 5/22 | Score | Team | Player | AB | R | H | BI | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 10.1 | Pirates | Gerrit Cole (W, 6-2) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 8.1 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 10 | |
| AL | 9.0 | White Sox | Jeff Samardzija (W, 4-2) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 9 | |
| 7.0 | Nationals | Max Scherzer (W, 5-3) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | ||
| 7.0 | Mariners | Felix Hernandez (W, 7-1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | ||
| BAT | 6.0 | Royals | Kendrys Morales DH | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| BAT | 6.0 | Brewers | Ryan Braun RF | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 6.0 | Giants | Ryan Vogelsong (W, 3-2) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | ||
| 5.0 | Tigers | Alfredo Simon (W, 5-2) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | ||
| 3.2 | `Dodgers | Zack Greinke | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.2 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||
| 3.0 | Rangers | Prince Fielder DH | 5 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Orioles | Caleb Joseph C | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Indians | Jason Kipnis 2B | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Rays | Evan Longoria 3B | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | Dbacks | Paul Goldschmidt 1B | 5 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | Angels | Chris Iannetta C | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| `Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save. | ||||||||||||||||