Twins pitcher Ervin Santana is Box-Toppers spring training Player of the Day for Friday.
Santana pitched six scoreless innings, striking out eight and allowing three hits, in the 6-1 win over the Rays. Santana had 5.4 Box-Toppers points in 2015 with the Twins. He has 93.3 career Box-Toppers points since 2005, which ranks seventh among active American League pitchers. His best year was 2008 with the Angels, when he had 16.7 points, ranked first among AL pitchers.
National League Player of the Day—Diamondbacks pitcher Shelby Miller allowed one run over 6 2/3 innings, striking out four and allowing three hits, in the 7-5 win over the Indians. Miller had 10.0 Box-Toppers points in 2015 with the Braves. His best year was 2013 with the Cardinals when he had 15.4 Box-Toppers points, ninth among NL pitchers.
American League Batter of the Day—Rougned Odor of the Rangers hit three solo home runs and went 4-for-4, driving in four runs, in the 12-11 win over the Padres. Odor had 3.0 Box-Toppers points in 2015.
National League Batter of the Day—Rob Segedin of the Dodgers went 3-for-3, scoring once and driving in two runs, in the 13-0 win over the Giants. Segedin has yet to make his regular season Major League debut and so has no Box-Toppers points.
Scoring—No Box-Toppers points are awarded in spring training games, but if it were the regular season, Santana would earn 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Miller would earn 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Odor and Segedin would each earn 1.5 points for being top batter in their league for the day. All of Friday’s other Players of the Game (listed in the chart below) would earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point.
Note—Sixteen spring training games were scheduled for Friday—11 are listed below. Three games are not included because they ended in ties (Astros vs. Braves, Cardinals vs. Mets and Blue Jays vs. Phillies) and two games were postponed or cancelled (Braves vs. Tigers and Nationals vs. Marlins).
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
| 3/25 | Score | Team | Player | AB | R | H | BI | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 11.0 | Twins | Ervin Santana (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | |
| BAT | 7.0 | Rangers | Rougned Odor 2B | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| NL | 4.2 | Dbacks | Shelby Miller (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |
| 4.0 | `Mariners | Félix Hernández | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 4.0 | Giants | Sergio Romo (SV, 1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| BAT | 3.0 | Dodgers | Rob Segedin 3B | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | Red Sox | Dustin Pedroia 2B | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Orioles | Nolan Reimold LF | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Rockies | Pat Valaika 2B | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Angels | Jefry Marte 3B | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | Brewers | Kirk Nieuwenhuis RF | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| `Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save. | ||||||||||||||||