Indians pitcher Corey Kluber is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to lead American League pitchers in season player rankings.
Kluber pitched seven scoreless innings, striking out seven and allowing five hits and two walks, in the 8-0 win over the Athletics.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2016 season as of July 31:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 20.0 |
| 2 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 17.0 |
| 3 | Fernandez, Jose 3147 | pi sp | fla nl | 16.4 |
| 4 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 14.5 |
| 5 | Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | sf nl | 14.4 |
| 6 | Hamels, Cole 2135 | pi sp | tex al | 14.1 |
| 7 | Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 12.4 |
| 8 | Lester, Jon 2173 | pi sp | chi nl | 12.4 |
| 9 | Bumgarner, Madison 2753 | pi sp | sf nl | 11.0 |
| 10 | Syndergaard, Noah 3472 | pi sp | nym nl | 11.0 |
Kluber earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 14.5 for the season, rising to fourth among all players. He rises to first among AL pitchers, passing previous leader Cole Hamels of the Rangers (14.1).
National League Player of the Day—Giants pitcher Matt Cain pitched five scoreless innings, allowing no hits, four walks and striking out five, in the 3-1 win over the Nationals.
American League Batter of the Day—Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers hit two homers and went 3-for-4, scoring three times and driving in four runs, in the 11-0 win over the Astros.
Cabrera earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being AL Batter of the Day, giving him 139.9 for his career, rising to 26th among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. With his points Sunday, Cabrera passes Andy Pettitte (138.5) on the “all-time” list and now trails 25th-ranked player, Rangers pitcher Cole Hamels (140.3).
Cabrera has 7.0 Box-Toppers points for the season, 10th among AL batters.
National League Batter of the Day—Neil Walker of the Mets homered, tripled and went 3-for-4, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 6-4 win over the Rockies.
Streak—Brewers pitcher Matt Garza has now earned Box-Toppers points in 10 straight seasons after earning his first Player of the Game honor of the season Sunday.
Garza (5IP 4H 2R BB 5K W in the 4-2 win over the Pirates) earned his first Box-Toppers point in 2007 with the Twins and has 69.1 career points, 18th among active NL pitchers. His best season was 2008 with the Rays when he had 12.7 points, ninth among AL pitchers. He had 1.7 points in 2015 with the Brewers.
Scoring—Kluber earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Cain earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Cabrera and Walker 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
| 7/31 | Score | Game | Player of Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 7.0 | CLE 8, OAK 0 | Corey Kluber (W,10-8) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | |
| BAT | 6.0 | DET 11, HOU 0 | Miguel Cabrera, 1B | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| NL | 6.0 | SF 3, WSH 1 | Matt Cain (W,3-6) | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | |
| BAT | 5.0 | NYM 6, COL 4 | Neil Walker, 2B | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 5.0 | LAD 14, ARI 3 | Yasmani Grandal, C | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 4.0 | MIN 6, CHW 4 | Brian Dozier, DH | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | TEX 5, KC 3 | Mitch Moreland, 1B | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | BOS 5, LAA 3 | Clay Buchholz (W,4-9) | - | - | - | - | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 3.0 | CHC 7, SEA 6 (12) | Hector Rondon (W,2-2) | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 3.0 | TB 5, NYY 3 | Alex Colome (S,25) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | CIN 3, SD 2 | Tony Cingrani (S,13) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | MIL 4, PIT 2 | Matt Garza (W,2-4) | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||
| 1.0 | MIA 5, STL 4 | J.T. Realmuto, C | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | ATL 2, PHI 1 | Mauricio Cabrera (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 0.0 | BAL 6, TOR 2 (12) | Jonathan Schoop, 2B | 5 | 1 | 3 | 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 | +/- |
| Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 14.5 | 27.9 | 58.7 | 58.7 | 1.1 |
| Cabrera, Miguel 1776 | 1b | det al | 7.0 | 11.7 | 60.3 | 139.9 | 2.3 |
| Colome, Alex 3189 | pi cp | tb al | 6.0 | 11.0 | 14.7 | 14.7 | 1.0 |
| Rondon, Hector 3201 | pi cp | chi nl | 5.0 | 7.0 | 10.0 | 10.0 | 3.0 |
| Realmuto, J.T. 3491 | ca | fla nl | 4.5 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 9.5 | -0.5 |
| Grandal, Yasmani 3058 | ca | lad nl | 4.0 | 6.0 | 14.0 | 14.0 | 2.0 |
| Moreland, Mitch 2799 | 1b | tex al | 3.5 | 9.7 | 17.7 | 18.7 | -2.7 |
| Walker, Neil 2756 | 2b | nym nl | 3.5 | 7.5 | 25.0 | 30.5 | -0.5 |
| Schoop, Jonathan 3307 | 2b | bal al | 3.5 | 6.0 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 1.0 |
| Cain, Matt 2081 | pi sp | sf nl | 2.7 | 4.7 | 37.5 | 99.7 | 0.7 |
| Buchholz, Clay 2363 | pi sp mr | bos al | 2.0 | 8.0 | 36.2 | 55.9 | -4.0 |
| Dozier, Brian 3219 | 2b dh | min al | 2.0 | 5.7 | 13.7 | 13.7 | -1.7 |
| Cingrani, Tony 3158 | pi cp | cin nl | 2.0 | 2.0 | 9.4 | 9.4 | 2.0 |
| Cabrera, Mauricio 3689 | pi cp mr | atl nl | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Garza, Matt 2343 | pi sp | mil nl | 1.0 | 2.7 | 32.4 | 69.1 | -0.7 |