White Sox pitcher Chris Sale is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to sixth in season player rankings.
Also Wednesday, Athletics pitcher Sonny Gray and Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels rose in Box-Toppers top 10 player rankings. Plus, Blue Jays pitcher Mark Buehrle earned a Box-Toppers point in his 16th straight season.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2015 season as of June 3.| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Hernandez, Felix 2064 | pi sp | sea al | 11.4 |
| 2 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | pit nl | 10.0 |
| 3 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 9.0 |
| 4 | Archer, Chris 3194 | pi sp | tb al | 9.0 |
| 5 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 8.7 |
| 6 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | chi al | 8.4 |
| 7 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 7.7 |
| 8 | Gray, Sonny 3259 | pi sp | oak al | 7.7 |
| 9 | Martinez, Carlos 3371 | pi sp | stl nl | 7.7 |
| 10 | Hamels, Cole 2135 | pi sp | phi nl | 7.0 |
Player of the Day—Sale pitched seven scoreless innings and struck out 13, allowing three hits, in the 9-2 win over the Rangers. Sale earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 8.4 for the season. He rises to sixth among players in Box-Toppers player rankings, third among American League pitchers.
National League Player of the Day—Pirates pitcher Francisco Liriano allowed one run over seven innings, striking out six, in the 5-2 win over the Giants.
National League Batter of the Day—Troy Tulowitzki of the Rockies hit a three-run homer and drove in five runs, going 2-for-3, in the 7-6 win over the Dodgers. Tulowitzki led all NL batters in Box-Toppers points in 2014 with 11.6 (despite playing just over half the season). Tulowitzki earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being NL Batter of the Day Wednesday, his first points of the season.
American League Batter of the Day—Steven Souza Jr. of the Rays hit a three-run homer in the 6-5 win over the Angels.
Rankings—Two other players who earned Player of the Game honors Wednesday rose in Box-Toppers top 10 player rankings for the season:
- Athletics pitcher Sonny Gray (8IP 2H 0R 7K W in the 6-1 win over the Tigers) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 7.7 for the season, rising to eighth in player rankings. Gray ranks fifth among AL pitchers.
- Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels (7IP 2R 8K ND in the 5-4 win over the Reds) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 7.0 for the season, rising to 10th in player rankings. Cole ranks fifth among NL pitchers. Hamels also rises to 37th place among all players since 1995 when Box-Toppers record keeping began. With his point earned Wednesday, Hamels now has 117.8 career Box-Toppers points and passes two players on Box-Toppers “all-time” list—Barry Zito (117.4 Box-Toppers points) and Carlos Delgado (117.7 Box-Toppers points). Hamels now trails 36th-place player on the list, Justin Verlander (118.2 Box-Toppers points).
Streak—Blue Jays pitcher Mark Buehrle has now earned at least 1.0 Box-Toppers point for 16 straight seasons.
Buehrle was Player of the Game in Wednesday’s 8-0 win over the Nationals (CG 0R 6H 2K W) and earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, his first of the season.
Buehrle earned his first Box-Toppers point in 2000 with the White Sox. His best season was 2005 with the White Sox when he had 17.7 Box-Toppers points, second among AL pitchers. In 2014, he had 9.7 Box-Toppers points with the Blue Jays, 28th among AL pitchers.
Buehrle has 115.7 career Box-Toppers points, 41st among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers record keeping began. With his point Wednesday, he passes Tim Lincecum (115.0 Box-Toppers points) on that list. He trails 40th-place player Todd Helton (116.4 Box-Toppers points).
Buehrle’s 115.7 career Box-Toppers points ranks seventh among active pitchers currently in the AL.
Debuts—Two players made their Box-Toppers debut Wednesday, the first time in their career they earned Player of the Game honors:
- Astros pitcher Lance McCullers (CG 4H R 11K W in the 3-1 win over the Orioles) made his Major League debut May 18 and was playing in his fourth career game. He is the 3,488th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
- Yasmany Tomas of the Diamondbacks (3-5 2R RBI in the 9-8 win over the Braves) made his Major League debut April 15 and was playing in his 38th career game. He is the 3,489th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Scoring—Sale earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Liriano earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day. Tulowitzki and Souza 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
| 6/3 | Score | Team | Player | AB | R | H | BI | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 15.0 | White Sox | Chris Sale (W, 5-2) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 13 | |
| 14.0 | Astros | Lance McCullers (W, 2-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 9.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 11 | ||
| 14.0 | Twins | Trevor May (W, 4-3) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | ||
| 12.0 | Athletics | Sonny Gray (W, 7-2) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | ||
| 11.0 | Yankees | Masahiro Tanaka (W, 3-1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 9 | ||
| 8.0 | Red Sox | Eduardo Rodriguez (W, 2-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | ||
| NL | 6.0 | Pirates | Francisco Liriano (W, 3-4) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |
| BAT | 5.0 | Rockies | Troy Tulowitzki SS | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 4.0 | Blue Jays | Mark Buehrle (W, 7-4) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 9.0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | Royals | Greg Holland (S, 8) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 2.0 | `Phillies | Cole Hamels | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 8 | ||
| 1.0 | Dbacks | Yasmany Tomas 3B | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | Cardinals | Matt Carpenter 3B | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | Marlins | Adeiny Hechavarria SS | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| BAT | 1.0 | Rays | Steven Souza Jr. RF | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 1.0 | Padres | Justin Upton LF | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| `Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save. | ||||||||||||||||