Mets' Steven Matz (6IP 0R 8K) tops players for Sunday, July 5

Mets pitcher Steven Matz is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

Also Sunday, Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels rose to 36th place among all players in Box-Toppers points since 1995, when record keeping began.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2015 season as of July 5.  


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
What are those numbers after players' names?

Player of the Day—Matz pitched six scoreless innings, striking out eight and allowing two hits, in the 8-0 win over the Dodgers.

American League Player of the Day—Kole Calhoun of the Angels hit a three-run homer and went 2-for-5, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 12-6 win over the Rangers.

National League Batter of the Day—Carlos Gonzalez of the Rockies homered and went 3-for-4, scoring twice and driving in two runs, in the 6-4 win over the Diamondbacks.

American League Batter of the Day—There is no separate AL Batter of the Day for Sunday because the overall AL Player of the Day was a batter (Kole Calhoun).

Notable—Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels rose to 36th place in Box-Toppers points among players since 1995 after earning Player of the Game honors Sunday.

Hamels (7IP 0R 6H 6K ND in the 4-0, 10-inning win over the Braves) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 118.8 for his career. With his point Sunday, he passes Justin Verlander (118.2) on the “all-time” list and now trails 34th-place player Cliff Lee (119.1). Hamels ranks 25th among all pitchers since 1995 and 12th among active pitchers.

Hamels also has the highest Box-Toppers season player ranking of any of the 15 who earned Player of the Game honors Sunday. Hamels has 8.0 Box-Toppers points on the season and ranks 18th among all players, 10th among NL pitchers.

Debut—Curt Casali of the Rays made his Box-Toppers debut Sunday, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Casali (2B 1-2 R BI in the 8-1 win over the Yankees) made his Major League debut July 18, 2014, and was playing in his 40th career game. He is the 3,524th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.

Scoring—Matz earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Calhoun earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day. Gonzalez earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being NL Batter of the Day. All of Sunday’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

7/5 Score Team Player AB R H BI BB K IP H R ER BB K
MLB 10.0 Mets Steven Matz (W, 2-0) - - - - - - 6.0 2 0 0 2 8
9.0 Nationals Jordan Zimmermann (W, 7-5) - - - - - - 7.0 3 1 1 1 8
8.0 Cardinals Lance Lynn (W, 6-4) - - - - - - 7.0 3 1 0 3 8
7.1 Cubs Kyle Hendricks (W, 4-4) - - - - - - 7.0 5 0 0 1 6
7.0 `Phillies Cole Hamels - - - - - - 7.0 6 0 0 0 6
4.0 Brewers Taylor Jungmann (W, 3-1) - - - - - - 8.0 4 1 1 2 4
AL 3.0 Angels Kole Calhoun RF 5 2 2 4 0 0 - - - - - -
BAT 3.0 Rockies Carlos Gonzalez RF 4 2 3 2 0 0 - - - - - -
3.0 Blue Jays Devon Travis 2B 3 1 2 3 1 1 - - - - - -
3.0 `Red Sox Eduardo Rodriguez - - - - - - 5.0 6 1 1 2 8
2.0 Orioles Steve Pearce 1B RF 4 2 3 1 1 0 - - - - - -
2.0 Rays Curt Casali C 2 1 1 2 1 0 - - - - - -
2.0 Pirates Mark Melancon (S, 27) - - - - - - 1.0 0 0 0 0 1
1.0 Royals Alex Gordon LF 2 1 1 1 1 0 - - - - - -
1.0 Mariners Seth Smith RF 2 0 1 2 1 0 - - - - - -
`Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save.