Twins pitcher Tyler Duffey is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Sunday, two players who earned Player of the Game honors rise in Box-Toppers top 10 season player rankings:
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2016 season as of June 26:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 20.0 |
| 2 | Fernandez, Jose 3147 | pi sp | fla nl | 13.4 |
| 3 | Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | sf nl | 11.7 |
| 4 | Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | chi nl | 10.7 |
| 5 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | chi al | 10.7 |
| 6 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 10.0 |
| 7 | Syndergaard, Noah 3472 | pi sp | nym nl | 10.0 |
| 8 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 9.8 |
| 9 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | ari nl | 9.7 |
| 10 | Hamels, Cole 2135 | pi sp | tex al | 9.4 |
- Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez rises to second place.
- White Sox pitcher Chris Sale rises to fifth place among all players and first place among AL pitchers.
Player of the Day—Duffey struck out eight over eight innings, allowing one run, two hits and no walks, in the 7-1 win over the Yankees.
Duffey had a Box-Toppers game score Sunday of +12, tied with Royals pitcher Ian Kennedy, Player of the Game in the 6-1 win over the Astros (7IP 3H R BB 11K W), but Duffey wins Player of the Day honors on a tiebreaker because he had more innings pitched.
National League Player of the Day—Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez struck out 13 over seven innings, allowing one run, four hits and three walks, in the 6-1 win over the Cubs.
Fernandez earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day, giving him 13.4 for the season, rising to second place in season player rankings. He trails overall leader, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (20.0 Box-Toppers points).
Fernandez had a Box-Toppers game score Sunday of +11, tied with Braves pitcher Bud Norris, Player of the Game in the 5-2 win over the Mets (7IP 4H 0R 0BB 8K W), but Fernandez wins NL Player of the Day over Norris on a tiebreaker because he had more strikeouts.
American League Batter of the Day—Lonnie Chisenhall of the Indians homered, tripled and went 4-for-4, scoring twice and driving in three runs, in the 9-3 win over the Tigers.
National League Batter of the Day—Trevor Story of the Rockies homered and went 2-for-2, scoring four runs, in the 9-7 win over the Diamondbacks.
Rankings—White Sox pitcher Chris Sale rises to fifth place among all players—and first among AL pitchers—after earning Player of the Game honors Sunday.
Sale (8IP 5H 2R 2BB 7K W in the 5-2 win over the Blue Jays) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 10.7 for the season. He becomes the seventh player this season with 10 or more Box-Toppers points. He also takes the Box-Toppers points lead for the season among AL pitchers, passing Corey Kluber of the Indians (9.8).
Streak—Shin-Soo Choo of the Rangers has now earned Box-Toppers points in 10 straight seasons after earning his first Player of the Game honor of the season Sunday.
Choo (2B 3-4 2R in the 6-2 win over the Red Sox) earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2007 with the Indians and has 47.7 for his career, sixth among active AL outfielders. His best season was 2010 with the Indians, when he had 9.0 Box-Toppers points, seventh among AL batters. In 2015, he had 4.5 Box-Toppers points with the Rangers, 13th among AL outfielders.
Debut—Pirates pitcher A.J. Schugel made his Box-Toppers debut Sunday, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors.
Schugel (2IP 0H 0R 0BB K ND in the 4-3 win over the Dodgers) made his Major League debut April 12, 2015, and was playing in his 27th career game. He is the 3,669th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Scoring—Duffey earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Fernandez earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Chisenhall and Story each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Sunday’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
| 6/26 | Score | Game | Player of Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 12.0 | MIN 7/NYY 1 | Tyler Duffey (W,3-6) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | |
| 12.0 | KC 6/HOU 1 | Ian Kennedy (W,6-6) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 11 | ||
| NL | 11.0 | MIA 6/CHC 1 | Jose Fernandez (W,10-3) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 13 | |
| 11.0 | ATL 5/NYM 2 | Bud Norris (W,3-7) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | ||
| 8.0 | CIN 3/SD 0 | Anthony DeSclafani (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | ||
| 6.0 | DC 3/MIL 2 | Tanner Roark (W,7-5) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | ||
| BAT | 5.0 | CLE 9/DET 3 | Lonnie Chisenhall, RF | 4 | 2 | 4 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| BAT | 5.0 | COL 9/ARI 7 | Trevor Story, SS | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 4.0 | SF 8/PHI 7 | Angel Pagan, LF | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 4.0 | BAL 12/TB 5 | Chris Davis, DH | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 4.0 | CHW 5/TOR 2 | Chris Sale (W,13-2) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | ||
| 3.0 | LAA 7/OAK 6 | Mike Trout, CF | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | `PIT 4/LAD 3 | A.J. Schugel (H,1) | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 2.0 | STL 11/SEA 6 | Matt Carpenter, 2B | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | TEX 6/BOS 2 | Shin-Soo Choo, RF | 4 | 2 | 3 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| `Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save. | ||||||||||||||
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 | 13.4 | 18.1 | 44.1 | 44.1 | 8.7 |
| Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | chi al | 10.7 | 29.5 | 81.7 | 83.7 | -8.1 |
| Davis, Chris 2478 | 1b | bal al | 7.5 | 18.5 | 49.4 | 57.9 | -3.5 |
| Kennedy, Ian 2723 | pi sp | kc al | 7.0 | 13.7 | 57.5 | 63.5 | 0.3 |
| Roark, Tanner 3261 | pi sp | dc nl | 6.7 | 7.7 | 22.7 | 22.7 | 5.7 |
| Trout, Mike 2949 | cf | ana al | 6.5 | 18.5 | 43.0 | 43.0 | -5.5 |
| Carpenter, Matt 2987 | 3b | stl nl | 6.5 | 12.0 | 26.5 | 26.5 | 1.0 |
| Duffey, Tyler 3558 | pi sp | min al | 3.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | -1.0 |
| Norris, Bud 2638 | pi sp | atl nl | 3.0 | 4.0 | 34.4 | 43.4 | 2.0 |
| Story, Trevor 3607 | ss | col nl | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 |
| Chisenhall, Lonnie 2959 | rf 3b | cle al | 1.5 | 1.5 | 11.5 | 11.5 | 1.5 |
| DeSclafani, Anthony 3441 | pi sp | cin nl | 1.0 | 8.7 | 8.7 | 8.7 | -6.7 |
| Choo, Shin-Soo 2267 | rf | tex al | 1.0 | 5.5 | 22.0 | 47.7 | -3.5 |
| Pagan, Angel 2184 | lf | sf nl | 1.0 | 3.0 | 14.5 | 25.5 | -1.0 |
| Schugel, A.J. 3669 | pi mr | pit nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |