Giants pitcher Jeff Samardzija is Box-Toppers spring training Player of the Day for Thursday.
Samardzija pitched five scoreless innings, allowing one hit and striking out five, in the 3-1 win over the Athletics. Samardzija had 9.4 Box-Toppers points in 2015 with the White Sox, ranked 20th among American League pitchers. His best season was 2012 with the Cubs when he had 12.7 points, 16th among National League pitchers.
American League Player of the Day—J.D. Martinez of the Tigers hit three homers, going 3-for-4 and driving in four runs, in the 10-6 win over the Yankees. Martinez had 1.7 Box-Toppers points in 2015 with the Tigers. His best season was 2014 with the Tigers, when he had 5.0 points.
National League Batter of the Day—Sean Rodriguez of the Pirates hit a grand slam, going 1-for-2, in the 13-8 win over the Rays. Rodriguez had no Box-Toppers points in 2015 with the Pirates. He had 5.0 points in 2014 with the Rays.
American League Batter of the Day—There is no separate AL Batter of the Day for Thursday because the AL Player of the Day was a batter, J.D. Martinez.
Scoring—No Box-Toppers points are awarded in spring training games, but if it were the regular season, Samardzija would earn 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, Martinez would earn 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day and Rodriguez would earn 1.5 points for being NL Batter of the Day. All of Thursday’s other Players of the Game (listed in the chart below) would earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point.
Note—Thirteen spring training games were scheduled for Thursday—11 are listed below. Two games are not listed because they involved non-Major League teams (Phillies vs. Phillies Futures and Padres vs. El Paso).
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
| 3/31 | Score | Team | Player | AB | R | H | BI | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 9.0 | Giants | Jeff Samardzija (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | |
| 7.1 | Brewers | Jimmy Nelson (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 5.1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | ||
| 7.0 | Cardinals | Mike Leake (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 4.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | ||
| AL | 6.0 | Tigers | J.D. Martínez RF | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 6.0 | Orioles | Yovani Gallardo (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| BAT | 4.0 | Pirates | Seán Rodríguez CF | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 4.0 | Angels | Al Alburquerque (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 3.2 | Indians | Carlos Carrasco (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | ||
| 3.0 | Twins | Ryan Pressly (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 2.0 | Rockies | Charlie Blackmon CF | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | Cubs | Yasiel Balaguert 1B | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - |