Pirates pitcher Francisco Liriano is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and becomes the 73rd player since 1995 with 100 or more Box-Toppers points.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2016 season as of July 21:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 20.0 |
| 2 | Fernandez, Jose 3147 | pi sp | fla nl | 16.4 |
| 3 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 14.0 |
| 4 | Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | sf nl | 13.4 |
| 5 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 12.5 |
| 6 | Hamels, Cole 2135 | pi sp | tex al | 12.1 |
| 7 | Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 11.4 |
| 8 | Bumgarner, Madison 2753 | pi sp | sf nl | 11.0 |
| 9 | Syndergaard, Noah 3472 | pi sp | nym nl | 11.0 |
| 10 | Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | chi nl | 10.7 |
Liriano struck out 13 over 6 2/3 innings, allowing three runs, four hits and no walks, in the 5-3 win over the Brewers.
Liriano earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 101.2 for his career, rising to 69th place among all players since 1995, passing four players on the “all-time” list—Larry Walker (100.1), Jeff Bagwell (100.4), Paul Konerko (100.7) and Jason Schmidt (101.2). Liriano now trails 68th-ranked player Tim Wakefield (101.4). Liriano has 6.0 Box-Toppers points for the season, 25th among NL pitchers.
American League Player of the Day—Red Sox pitcher Steven Wright struck out nine over eight innings, allowing two runs (one earned), four hits and one walk, in the 13-2 win over the Twins.
National League Batter of the Day—Justin Turner of the Dodgers hit two home runs and went 2-for-3, driving in five runs, in the 6-3 win over the Nationals.
American League Batter of the Day—Corey Dickerson of the Rays homered and went 2-for-3, driving in three runs, in the 7-3 win over the Athletics.
Notable—Orioles pitcher Chris Tillman had the most season Box-Toppers points among the nine who earned Player of the Game honors Thursday.
Tillman (7IP 4H R 2BB 7K W in the 401 win over the Yankees) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 7.0 for the season, 45th among all players and 16th among AL pitchers.
Scoring—Liriano earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Wright earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Turner and Dickerson each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s 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
| 7/21 | Score | Game | Player of Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 10.2 | PIT 5, MIL 3 | Francisco Liriano (W,6-9) | - | - | - | - | 6.2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 13 | |
| AL | 9.0 | BOS 13, MIN 2 | Steven Wright (W,12-5) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9 | |
| BAT | 6.0 | LAD 6, WSH 3 | Justin Turner, 3B | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 6.0 | MIA 9, PHI 3 | Tom Koehler (W,7-8) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||
| 6.0 | BAL 4, NYY 1 | Chris Tillman (W,14-2) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | ||
| BAT | 3.0 | TB 7, OAK 3 | Corey Dickerson, DH | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | STL 6, SD 5 | Stephen Piscotty, PH-1B-RF | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | COL 7, ATL 3 | Carlos Gonzalez, RF | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.2 | DET 2, CHW 1 (7) | Shane Greene (S,2) | - | - | - | - | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
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 | +/- |
| Tillman, Chris 2754 | pi sp | bal al | 7.0 | 11.7 | 40.8 | 42.8 | 2.3 |
| Wright, Steven 3224 | pi sp | bos al | 6.7 | 10.4 | 11.4 | 11.4 | 3.0 |
| Liriano, Francisco 2104 | pi sp | pit nl | 6.0 | 20.9 | 61.4 | 101.2 | -8.9 |
| Gonzalez, Carlos 2460 | rf | col nl | 4.5 | 16.0 | 44.7 | 57.7 | -7.0 |
| Piscotty, Stephen 3570 | rf | stl nl | 4.0 | 8.2 | 8.2 | 8.2 | -0.2 |
| Dickerson, Corey 3222 | lf dh | tb al | 3.5 | 6.5 | 15.5 | 15.5 | 0.5 |
| Koehler, Tom 3159 | pi sp | fla nl | 3.0 | 7.0 | 15.0 | 15.0 | -1.0 |
| Turner, Justin 2865 | 3b 2b | lad nl | 2.5 | 6.5 | 12.0 | 12.0 | -1.5 |
| Greene, Shane 3381 | pi sp | det al | 2.0 | 5.0 | 12.0 | 12.0 | -1.0 |