Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to third place in season player rankings.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of April 20:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 5.0 |
| 2 | Vargas, Jason 2055 | pi sp | kc al | 5.0 |
| 3 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 4.7 |
| 4 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 4.7 |
| 5 | Chacin, Jhoulys 2711 | pi mr sp | sd nl | 3.7 |
| 6 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 3.4 |
| 7 | Morrison, Logan 2794 | 1b | tb al | 3.2 |
| 8 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 3.0 |
| 9 | Syndergaard, Noah 3472 | pi sp | nym nl | 3.0 |
| 10 | Kimbrel, Craig 2825 | pi cp | bos al | 3.0 |
Sale struck out 13 over eight scoreless innings, allowing four hits and walking one, in the 4-1, 10-inning win over the Blue Jays. Sale picked up the no decision and did not earn the win because when he exited, the game was in a scoreless tie.
Sale earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 4.7 for the season, rising to third in season player rankings.
National League Player of the Day—Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg struck out 10 over seven innings, allowing two runs on six hits, in the 3-2 win over the Braves.
American League Batter of the Day—Ryon Healy of the Athletics doubled and went 3-for-3, scoring once and driving in two runs, in the 9-6 win over the Mariners.
National League Batter of the Day—Travis Shaw of the Brewers hit a three-run homer and went 2-for-4, in the 7-5 win over the Cardinals.
Scoring—Sale earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Strasburg earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Healy and Shaw 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.
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Top player from each game
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score| 4/20 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 16.0 | `BOS 4, TOR 1 (F/10) | Chris Sale | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 13 | |
| 14.0 | `BAL 2, CIN 1 (F/10) | Wade Miley | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 11 | ||
| 8.2 | HOU 2, LAA 1 | Lance McCullers Jr. (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 6.2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 | ||
| 6.0 | TB 8, DET 1 | Erasmo Ramirez (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | ||
| NL | 5.0 | WSH 3, ATL 2 | Stephen Strasburg (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10 | |
| 4.0 | TEX 1, KC 0 (F/13) | Dario Alvarez (W,1-0) | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | ||
| 3.2 | SD 4, ARI 1 | Clayton Richard (W,2-2) | - | - | - | - | 6.2 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | ||
| 3.1 | CLE 6, MIN 2 | Trevor Bauer (W,1-2) | - | - | - | - | 6.1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | ||
| BAT | 3.0 | OAK 9, SEA 6 | Ryon Healy, 1B | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| BAT | 2.0 | MIL 7, STL 5 | Travis Shaw, 3B | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 1.0 | PHI 6, NYM 4 | Tommy Joseph, 1B | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
AL—Overall American League Player of the Day, worth 1.7 total Box-Toppers points.
NL—Overall National League Player of the Day, worth 1.7 total Box-Toppers points.
BAT—Top AL or NL Batter of the Day, worth 1.5 total Box-Toppers points.
All other players listed here earn Player of the Game honors, worth 1.0 Box-Toppers point.
` 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 (’17). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’16-17), the period 2012-2017 (’12-17) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2017 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2016 total (+/-).| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’17 | ’16-17 | ’12-17 | Career | +/- |
| Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 4.7 | 18.1 | 86.1 | 91.1 | -8.7 |
| Richard, Clayton 2584 | pi sp | sd nl | 3.0 | 5.0 | 13.2 | 32.6 | 1.0 |
| Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 2.7 | 17.8 | 76.9 | 85.6 | -12.4 |
| Healy, Ryon 3685 | 1b 3b | oak al | 2.5 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5.5 | -0.5 |
| McCullers, Lance 3488 | pi sp | hou al | 2.0 | 8.1 | 14.8 | 14.8 | -4.1 |
| Miley, Wade 3006 | pi sp | bal al | 2.0 | 8.0 | 38.4 | 38.4 | -4.0 |
| Ramirez, Erasmo 1786 | pi cp sp | tb al | 2.0 | 5.7 | 14.7 | 16.7 | -1.7 |
| Shaw, Travis 3544 | 3b 1b | mil nl | 1.5 | 8.5 | 12.7 | 12.7 | -5.5 |
| Bauer, Trevor 3065 | pi sp | cle al | 1.0 | 12.4 | 30.5 | 30.5 | -10.4 |
| Joseph, Tommy 3681 | 1b | phi nl | 1.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | -2.0 |
| Alvarez, Dario 3663 | pi cp | tex al | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 |