Indians pitcher Carlos Carrasco is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Thursday, Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer rose to second place in Box-Toppers player rankings and Brandon Phillips of the Reds earned Box-Toppers points for the 10th straight season.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2015 season as of July 30.| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 16.4 |
| 2 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 16.0 |
| 3 | Hernandez, Felix 2064 | pi sp | sea al | 15.4 |
| 4 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | chi al | 14.4 |
| 5 | Price, David 2593 | pi sp | tor al | 13.1 |
| 6 | Gray, Sonny 3259 | pi sp | oak al | 13.1 |
| 7 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 13.0 |
| 8 | Archer, Chris 3194 | pi sp | tb al | 13.0 |
| 9 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | pit nl | 13.0 |
| 10 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 12.7 |
Player of the Day—Carrasco pitched a two-hit complete game, allowing one run and striking out seven, in the 3-1 win over the Athletics.
Carrasco earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 11.0 for the season and becomes the 22nd player this season with 10 or more Box-Toppers points. He ranks 15th among all players and eighth among AL pitchers.
National League Player of the Day—Brandon Phillips of the Reds hit two homers and went 4-for-5, driving in seven runs, in the 15-5 win over the Pirates.
Phillips earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day, his first points of the season, and has now earned Box-Toppers points for 10 straight seasons. He earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2002 with the Indians, but did not earn points in 2004 or 2005. His 10-season streak began in 2006 when he earned Box-Toppers points with both the Indians and the Reds. His best year was 2012 with the Reds, when he earned 9.5 Box-Toppers points, seventh among NL batters. In 2014, he had 2.0 Box-Toppers points with the Reds.
Phillips has 61.1 career Box-Toppers points and ranks eighth among second basemen since 1995 (when Box-Toppers record keeping began). He ranks second among active NL second basemen, behind Chase Utley of the Phillies (72.1).
American League Batter of the Day—Eddie Rosario of the Twins hit a three-run homer and also tripled and doubled, going 3-for-5 and scoring three times, in the 9-5 win over the Mariners.
This was Rosario’s Box-Toppers debut, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Rosario made his Major League debut May 6 and was playing in his 66th career game. He is the 3,542nd player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
National League Batter of the Day—There is no separate NL Batter of the Day for Thursday because the overall NL Player of the Day is a batter (Brandon Phillips).
Rankings—Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer rose to second place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Thursday. Scherzer (7IP 3H 0R 6K W in the 1-0 win over the Marlins) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 16.0 for the season. He also ranks second among NL pitchers, behind overall leader Jacob deGrom of the Mets (16.4).
Scherzer also rises to 64th place among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers record keeping began. With his point Thursday, Scherzer now has 101.0 career Box-Toppers points and passes three players on the “all-time” list—Larry Walker (100.1), Jeff Bagwell (100.4) and Paul Konerko (100.7). Scherzer trails 63rd-place player Jason Schmidt (101.2).
Notable—Astros pitcher Scott Kazmir rose to 13th place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Thursday. Kazmir (7.2IP 3H 0R 5K ND in the 3-0 win over the Angels) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 11.7 for the season. He ranks seventh among AL pitchers.
Debuts—In addition to Rosario, one other player made his Box-Toppers debut Thursday, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors:
- Phillies pitcher Elvis Araujo (1IP 0H 0R 2K ND in the 4-1 win over the Braves) made his Major League debut May 5 and was playing in his 29th career game. He is the 3,543rd player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Scoring—Carrasco earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Phillips earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day. Rosario earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being AL Batter of the Day. All of Thursday’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
| 7/30 | Score | Team | Player | AB | R | H | BI | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 11.0 | Indians | Carlos Carrasco (W,11-8) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 9.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | |
| NL | 8.0 | Reds | Brandon Phillips, 2B | 5 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 7.0 | Cardinals | Matt Carpenter, 3B-1B | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 7.0 | Nationals | Max Scherzer (W,11-8) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | ||
| 6.2 | `Astros | Scott Kazmir | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | ||
| 6.0 | Padres | Derek Norris, C | 5 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| BAT | 4.0 | Twins | Eddie Rosario, LF | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | Tigers | Yoenis Cespedes, LF | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Cubs | Anthony Rizzo, 1B | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Rangers | Josh Hamilton, DH | 4 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Red Sox | Steven Wright (W,4-4) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 | ||
| 3.0 | `Phillies | Elvis Araujo (H,1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | Blue Jays | Dioner Navarro, C | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| `Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save. | ||||||||||||||||