Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish is Friday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2016 season as of Sept. 30:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 25.7 |
| 2 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 24.4 |
| 3 | Fernandez, Jose 3147 | pi sp | died* | 22.4 |
| 4 | Lester, Jon 2173 | pi sp | chi nl | 22.1 |
| 5 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 21.2 |
| 6 | Hamels, Cole 2135 | pi sp | tex al | 17.8 |
| 7 | Syndergaard, Noah 3472 | pi sp | nym nl | 16.7 |
| 8 | Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | sf nl | 16.4 |
| 9 | Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | chi nl | 15.7 |
| 10 | Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 15.1 |
* Jose Fernandez died in a boating accident Sept. 25. His team was the Miami Marlins.
Darvish struck out 12 over six innings, allowing one run, three hits and one walk, in the 3-1 win over the Rays.
Darvish earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 10.4 for the season. He becomes the 50th player this season with 10 or more Box-Toppers points and rises to 47th place among all players, 19th among American League pitchers.
This is Darvish’s fourth season with 10 or more points. In 2012, he had 16.8 points, in 2013—16.0 and in 2014—12.5. He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2015 and did not play.
National League Player of the Day—Cardinals pitcher Carlos Martinez struck out nine over seven scoreless innings, allowing five hits and one walk, in the 7-0 win over the Pirates.
Martinez earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day, giving him 12.4 for the season, most among the 15 who earned Player of the Game honors Friday. Martinez ranks 29th among all players and 15th among NL pitchers.
National League Batter of the Day—Ben Zobrist of the Cubs hit two home runs, doubled and went 3-for-4, scoring three times and driving in three runs, in the 7-3 win over the Reds.
American League Batter of the Day—Francisco Lindor of the Indians hit a three-run homer and went 2-for-2, scoring twice, in the 7-2 win over the Royals.
Notable—David Ortiz of the Red Sox rises to 23rd place in career Box-Toppers points since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995 after earning Player of the Game honors Friday.
Ortiz (HR 2-4 R 3BI in the 5-3 win over the Blue Jays) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 145.9 for his career. With his point Friday, he passes Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers (144.9) on the “all-time” list and now trails 22nd-ranked player Jim Thome (146.7). Ortiz now rises to seventh place among active players in career Box-Toppers points. He has 8.0 Box-Toppers points on the season, 18th among AL batters. Ortiz is retiring after this season.
Debut—Angels pitcher Daniel Wright made his Box-Toppers debut Friday, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors.
Wright (6IP 6H R 0BB 5K W in the 7-1 win over the Astros) made his Major League debut May 24 and was playing in his ninth career game. He is the 3,753rd player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Scoring—Darvish earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Martinez earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Zobrist and Lindor each earn 1.5 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.
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Top player from each game
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score
| 9/30 | Score | Game | Player of Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 12.0 | TEX 3, TB 1 | Yu Darvish (W,7-5) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | |
| NL | 10.0 | STL 7, PIT 0 | Carlos Martinez (W,16-9) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | |
| 5.2 | DET 6, ATL 2 | Daniel Norris (W,4-2) | - | - | - | - | 6.2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | ||
| BAT | 5.0 | CHC 7, CIN 3 | Ben Zobrist, 2B-LF | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 5.0 | SF 9, LAD 3 | Brandon Belt, 1B | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| BAT | 5.0 | CLE 7, KC 2 | Francisco Lindor, SS | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 5.0 | CHW 7, MIN 3 | Carlos Rodon (W,9-10) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 10 | ||
| 4.0 | BAL 8, NYY 1 | Jonathan Schoop, 2B | 4 | 1 | 2 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | NYM 5, PHI 1 | Jay Bruce, RF | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | SEA 5, OAK 1 | Robinson Cano, 2B | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | MIA 7, WSH 4 | Christian Yelich, CF | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | LAA 7, HOU 1 | Daniel Wright (W,1-5) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | ||
| 3.0 | COL 4, MIL 1 | Adam Ottavino (S,7) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | BOS 5, TOR 3 | David Ortiz, DH | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | ARI 5, SD 3 | Chris Owings, SS | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Box-Toppers point totals of the day’s top players
Here are Box-Toppers point totals of each of the Players of the Game. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (16). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (15-16), the period 2011-2016 (11-16) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2016 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2015 total (+/-).| Player of Game | Pos | Team | 16 | 15-16 | 11-16 | Career | +/- |
| Martinez, Carlos 3371 | pi sp | stl nl | 12.4 | 26.1 | 27.1 | 27.1 | -1.3 |
| Darvish, Yu 3003 | pi sp | tex al | 10.4 | 10.4 | 55.6 | 55.6 | 10.4 |
| Bruce, Jay 2453 | rf | nym nl | 8.5 | 11.7 | 31.7 | 58.8 | 5.3 |
| Rodon, Carlos 3494 | pi sp | chi al | 8.0 | 16.1 | 16.1 | 16.1 | -0.1 |
| Cano, Robinson 2092 | 2b | sea al | 8.0 | 14.5 | 43.5 | 75.4 | 1.5 |
| Ortiz, David | dh | bos al | 8.0 | 12.5 | 43.9 | 145.9 | 3.5 |
| Belt, Brandon 2943 | 1b | sf nl | 7.0 | 8.5 | 20.5 | 20.5 | 5.5 |
| Lindor, Francisco 3586 | ss | cle al | 7.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 6.0 |
| Yelich, Christian 3334 | lf cf | fla nl | 5.5 | 8.0 | 15.5 | 15.5 | 3.0 |
| Schoop, Jonathan 3307 | 2b | bal al | 4.5 | 7.0 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 2.0 |
| Zobrist, Ben 2216 | 2b rf lf | chi nl | 4.0 | 5.0 | 23.0 | 32.0 | 3.0 |
| Ottavino, Adam 3054 | pi cp | col nl | 3.0 | 5.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 1.0 |
| Owings, Chris 3347 | ss cf | ari nl | 3.0 | 4.0 | 6.5 | 6.5 | 2.0 |
| Norris, Daniel 3548 | pi sp | det al | 2.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | -2.0 |
| Wright, Daniel 3753 | pi sp | ana al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |