Pirates pitcher Jeff Locke is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Saturday, Tigers pitcher David Price rose to third place in Box-Toppers player rankings and Joe Mauer of the Twins earned a Box-Toppers point for his 12th straight season.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2015 season as of July 4.| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 14.0 |
| 2 | Hernandez, Felix 2064 | pi sp | sea al | 13.4 |
| 3 | Price, David 2593 | pi sp | det al | 12.1 |
| 4 | Archer, Chris 3194 | pi sp | tb al | 12.0 |
| 5 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | pit nl | 12.0 |
| 6 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | chi al | 11.4 |
| 7 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 11.4 |
| 8 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 10.7 |
| 9 | Martinez, Carlos 3371 | pi sp | stl nl | 10.7 |
| 10 | Harvey, Matt 3075 | pi sp | nym nl | 9.7 |
Player of the Day—Locke pitched eight scoreless innings, allowing two hits and striking out six, in the 1-0 win over the Indians.
American League Player of the Day—Yankees pitcher Michael Pineda pitched seven scoreless innings, striking out 10, in the 3-2 win over the Rays. Pineda did not earn the win, picking up a no-decision, because after he exited, the Rays tied the game 2-2.
American League Batter of the Day—C.J. Cron of the Angels homered and went 3-for-4, driving in six runs, in the 13-0 win over the Rangers.
National League Batter of the Day—Kris Bryant of the Cubs hit two home runs, including a grand slam and drove in six total runs, in the 7-2 win over the Marlins.
Rankings—Tigers pitcher David Price rose to third place in Box-Toppers player rankings for the season after earning Player of the Game honors Saturday. Price (7IP 8H R 7K W in the 8-3 win over the Blue Jays) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 12.1 for the season. He ranks second among AL pitchers, behind Felix Hernandez of the Mariners (13.4).
Streak—Joe Mauer of the Twins has now earned at least 1.0 Box-Toppers point for 12 straight seasons after earning Player of the Game honors Saturday. Mauer (HR 4-5 2R 2BI in the 5-3 win over the Royals) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, his first of the season.
Mauer earned his first Box-Toppers point in 2004 with the Twins. His best season was 2008 with the Twins, when he had 9.5 Box-Toppers points, eighth among AL batters. In 2014, he had 5.0 Box-Toppers points.
Mauer has 67.6 career Box-Toppers points, fourth-most among active AL first basemen. Mauer spent most of his career as a regular catcher and if he were considered a catcher in ranking his career points, he would finish ahead of the current active AL catcher in career points, Brian McCann of the Yankees (50.7 Box-Toppers points).
Notable—Dodgers pitcher Zack Grienke now has 134.7 career Box-Toppers points after earning Player of the Game honors Sunday. Grienke (7IP 4H 0R 4K W in the 4-3 win over the Mets) maintains his spot in 23rd place in Box-Toppers points among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers record keeping began. He now has 9.0 Box-Toppers points for the season, sixth among NL pitchers.
Also notable—Cliff Pennington of the Diamondbacks earned Player of the Game honors Saturday for the second straight day. Pennington (PH 1-1 R BI in the 7-3 win over the Rockies) was also Player of the Game in the Diamondback’s win Friday.
Scoring—Locke earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Pineda earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day. Cron and Bryant each earn 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Saturday’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
| 7/4 | Score | Team | Player | AB | R | H | BI | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 12.0 | Pirates | Jeff Locke (W, 5-4) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |
| AL | 11.0 | `Yankees | Michael Pineda | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | |
| 9.2 | `White Sox | Jeff Samardzija | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 | ||
| 9.0 | Red Sox | Clay Buchholz (W, 7-6) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 9.0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | ||
| 7.0 | Dodgers | Zack Greinke (W, 7-2) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | ||
| BAT | 6.0 | Angels | C.J. Cron DH | 4 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| BAT | 6.0 | Cubs | Kris Bryant 3B | 4 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.2 | `Nationals | Stephen Strasburg | - | - | - | - | - | - | 3.2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | ||
| 3.0 | Twins | Joe Mauer 1B | 5 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Braves | Cameron Maybin CF | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Tigers | David Price (W, 8-2) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | ||
| 2.0 | Brewers | Adam Lind 1B | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | Dbacks | Cliff Pennington PH | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | Athletics | Kendall Graveman (W, 6-4) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 1.0 | Cardinals | Seth Maness (W, 3-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| `Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save. | ||||||||||||||||