Indians pitcher Carlos Carrasco is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2016 season as of Aug. 22:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 20.0 |
| 2 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 18.7 |
| 3 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 17.2 |
| 4 | Fernandez, Jose 3147 | pi sp | fla nl | 16.4 |
| 5 | Lester, Jon 2173 | pi sp | chi nl | 15.4 |
| 6 | Hamels, Cole 2135 | pi sp | tex al | 15.1 |
| 7 | Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | sf nl | 14.4 |
| 8 | Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 14.1 |
| 9 | Syndergaard, Noah 3472 | pi sp | nym nl | 13.0 |
| 10 | Happ, J.A. 2536 | pi sp | tor al | 12.7 |
Also Monday, Cubs pitcher Jon Lester rises to fifth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Player of the Day—Carrasco pitched eight scoreless innings, striking out nine and allowing four hits and no walks, in the 1-0 win over the Athletics.
Carrasco earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 10.4 for the season. He becomes the 27th player this season with 10 or more Box-Toppers points and ranks 24th among all players, 10th among American League pitchers. It is his third straight season with 10 or more points (10.7 in 2014, 18.0 in 2015).
National League Player of the Day—Adrian Gonzalez of the Dodgers hit three home runs and went 3-for-6, driving in eight runs, in the 18-9 win over the Reds.
American League Batter of the Day—Kyle Seager of the Mariners hit a three-run homer and went 2-for-3, scoring twice, in the 7-5 win over the Yankees.
Seager earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being AL Batter of the Day, giving him 8.5 points for the season, rising to fourth among AL batters.
National League Batter of the Day—There is no separate NL Batter of the Day for Monday because the overall NL Player of the Day is batter Adrian Gonzalez.
Rankings—Cubs pitcher Jon Lester rises to fifth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Monday.
Lester (6IP 5H R 2BB 8K W in the 5-1 win over the Padres) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 15.4 for the season, rising from seventh to fifth among all players. He ranks fourth among NL pitchers.
With Lester’s rise to 15.4 points, it marks the first time this season that all players in Box-Toppers season top 10 list have different Box-Toppers point totals—on Monday, Lester and Giants pitcher Johnny Cueto both had 14.4 points.
Lester now also has 136.5 career Box-Toppers points, 28th-most among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. He trails 27th-ranked player Andy Pettitte (138.5).
Notable—Red Sox pitcher David Price rises to 64th place among all players in career Box-Toppers points since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began, after he earned Player of the Game honors Monday.
Price (8IP 2H 0R 2BB 8K W in the 6-2 win over the Rays) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 103.2 career points. He passes two players on the “all-time” list—Miguel Tejada (102.3) and Carlos Beltran of the Rangers (102.9). He trails 63rd-ranked player Jamie Moyer (104.0). Price has 9.4 Box-Toppers points on the season, 13th among AL pitchers.
Scoring—Carrasco earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Gonzalez earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Seager earns 1.5 points for being AL Batter of the Day. All of Monday’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
| 8/22 | Score | Game | Player of Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 13.0 | CLE 1, OAK 0 | Carlos Carrasco (W,9-6) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | |
| 12.0 | BOS 6, TB 2 | David Price (W,12-8) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | ||
| 9.0 | HOU 3, PIT 1 | Doug Fister (W,12-8) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | ||
| NL | 8.0 | LAD 18, CIN 9 | Adrian Gonzalez, 1B | 6 | 3 | 3 | 8 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 5.0 | CHC 5, SD 1 | Jon Lester (W,14-4) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | ||
| BAT | 4.0 | SEA 7, NYY 5 | Kyle Seager, 3B | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | ARI 9, ATL 8 | Paul Goldschmidt, 1B | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | BAL 4, WSH 3 | Zach Britton (S,38) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | MIL 4, COL 2 | Tyler Thornburg (S,5) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
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 | +/- |
| Lester, Jon 2173 | pi sp | chi nl | 15.4 | 27.4 | 73.6 | 136.5 | 3.4 |
| Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 10.4 | 28.4 | 44.5 | 44.5 | -7.6 |
| Price, David 2593 | pi sp | bos al | 9.4 | 30.5 | 86.5 | 103.2 | -11.7 |
| Seager, Kyle 3031 | 3b | sea al | 8.5 | 13.5 | 27.5 | 27.5 | 3.5 |
| Gonzalez, Adrian 2193 | 1b | lad nl | 5.7 | 9.7 | 36.4 | 72.3 | 1.7 |
| Britton, Zach 2835 | pi cp | bal al | 5.0 | 13.7 | 33.1 | 33.1 | -3.7 |
| Thornburg, Tyler 3195 | pi cp | mil nl | 5.0 | 5.0 | 11.0 | 11.0 | 5.0 |
| Fister, Doug 2688 | pi sp | hou al | 4.0 | 6.0 | 51.5 | 55.2 | 2.0 |
| Goldschmidt, Paul 2935 | 1b | ari nl | 3.5 | 13.7 | 38.9 | 38.9 | -6.7 |