Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to fifth place in season player rankings.
Fernandez struck out 12 over seven innings, allowing one run and six hits, in the 9-1 win over the Rays.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2016 season as of May 26:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 12.0 |
| 2 | Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | sf nl | 9.0 |
| 3 | Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | chi nl | 8.7 |
| 4 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | chi al | 8.7 |
| 5 | Fernandez, Jose 3147 | pi sp | fla nl | 8.7 |
| 6 | Matz, Steven 3516 | pi sp | nym nl | 8.7 |
| 7 | Machado, Manny 3087 | ss 3b | bal al | 7.7 |
| 8 | Hill, Rich 2215 | pi sp | oak al | 7.4 |
| 9 | Syndergaard, Noah 3472 | pi sp | nym nl | 7.0 |
| 10 | Hamels, Cole 2135 | pi sp | tex al | 6.4 |
Fernandez earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 8.7 for the season, rising to fifth place in season player rankings, fourth among National League pitchers.
American League Player of the Day—Astros pitcher Lance McCullers struck out 10 over five innings, allowing one run and one hit, in the 4-2 win over the Orioles.
National League Batter of the Day—Pirates pitcher Gerrit Cole hit a three-run homer and doubled, going 2-for-2, in the 8-3 win over the Diamondbacks.
Cole becomes the third pitcher this season to earn Player of the Game honors for batting. It was done previously by Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright on May 2 and by Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard on May 11. It is the first time in Cole’s career he has earned Player of the Game honors for batting.
Cole had a Box-Toppers game score of +4.0 for batting and a score of +1.0 for his pitching performance (5IP 7H R 3BB 5K ND).
American League Batter of the Day—There is no separate AL Batter of the Day for Thursday because no AL batter earned Player of the Game honors.
Debut—Dustin Garneau of the Rockies made his Box-Toppers debut Thursday with his first career Player of the Game honor.
Garneau (HR 2B 2-4 2R 2BI in the 8-2 win over the Red Sox) made his Major League debut Aug. 20, 2015, and was playing in his 33rd career game. He is the 3,643rd player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Scoring—Fernandez earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and McCullers earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Cole earns 1.5 points for being NL Batter of the Day. All of Thursday’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
| 5/26 | Score | Game | Player of Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 10.0 | MIA 9/TB 1 | Jose Fernandez (W,7-2) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | |
| AL | 6.0 | HOU 4/BAL 2 | Lance McCullers (W,1-1) | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 10 | |
| BAT | 4.0 | PIT 8/ARI 3 | Gerrit Cole, P | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 4.0 | TOR 3/NYY 1 | J.A. Happ (W,6-2) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | ||
| 2.0 | COL 8/BOS 2 | Dustin Garneau, C | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | MIL 6/ATL 2 | Hernan Perez, PH-3B | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | DC 2/STL 1 | Joe Ross (W,4-4) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
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 | +/- |
| Fernandez, Jose 3147 | pi sp | fla nl | 8.7 | 13.4 | 39.4 | 39.4 | 4.0 |
| Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | pit nl | 4.5 | 23.5 | 33.9 | 33.9 | -14.5 |
| Ross, Joe 3499 | pi sp | dc nl | 3.7 | 8.7 | 8.7 | 8.7 | -1.3 |
| Happ, J.A. 2536 | pi sp | tor al | 3.0 | 16.1 | 31.5 | 39.5 | -10.1 |
| McCullers, Lance 3488 | pi sp | hou al | 1.7 | 8.4 | 8.4 | 8.4 | -5.0 |
| Perez, Hernan 3577 | 3b ph | mil nl | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 |
| Garneau, Dustin 3643 | ca | col nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |