Twins pitcher Kyle Gibson is Box-Toppers spring training Player of the Day for Saturday.
Gibson pitched six scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out eight, in the 3-0 win over the Pirates. Gibson had 8.0 Box-Toppers points in 2015, most among Twins players and 33rd among American League pitchers.
National League Player of the Day—Matt Duffy of the Giants homered and went 3-for-4, scoring three times and driving in two runs, in the 5-2 win over the Cubs. Duffy had 6.2 Box-Toppers points in 2015, fourth among NL third basemen.
American League Batter of the Day—Audry Perez of the Orioles hit a three-run homer an went 2-for-2, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 16-8 win over the Red Sox. Perez has played in three regular season Major League games, but has yet to earn Player of the Game honors and so has no Box-Toppers points.
National League Batter of the Day—There is no separate NL Batter of the Day for Saturday because the overall NL Player of the Day is a batter, Matt Duffy.
Scoring—No Box-Toppers points are awarded in spring training games, but if it were the regular season, Gibson would earn 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, Duffy would earn 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day and Perez would earn 1.5 points for AL Batter of the Day. All of Saturday’s other Players of the Game (listed in the chart below) would earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point.
Note—Eighteen spring training games were scheduled for Saturday—15 are listed below. Two games are not included because they ended in ties (Mets vs. Braves and Diamondbacks vs. Brewers) and one other game was postponed (Marlins vs. Astros).
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
| 3/26 | Score | Team | Player | AB | R | H | BI | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 11.0 | Twins | Kyle Gibson (W, 3-1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | |
| 8.1 | `Astros | Chris Devenski | - | - | - | - | - | - | 4.1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | ||
| 7.0 | `Yankees | Bryan Mitchell | - | - | - | - | - | - | 4.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | ||
| BAT | 6.0 | Orioles | Audry Pérez C | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 5.0 | Tigers | Justin Upton LF | 4 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| NL | 4.0 | Giants | Matt Duffy 3B | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 4.0 | Rockies | Trevor Story SS | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.1 | Rays | Jake Odorizzi (W, 1-1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | ||
| 3.1 | Reds | Caleb Cotham (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2.1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 3.1 | Reds | Tony Cingrani (Sv, 1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | Mariners | Kyle Seager 3B | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.1 | Dodgers | Chris Hatcher (W, 1-1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 2.0 | Royals | Eric Hosmer 1B | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | Angels | Todd Cunningham PR-CF | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | Nationals | Tanner Roark (W, 2-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | ||
| `Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save. | ||||||||||||||||