Mariners pitcher Ariel Miranda is Friday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Friday, two closing pitchers rise in Box-Toppers top 10 season player rankings after both earned Player of the Game honors—Greg Holland of the Rockies rises to fourth place and Craig Kimbrel of the Red Sox rises to seventh.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of April 28:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 6.0 |
| 2 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 5.7 |
| 3 | Vargas, Jason 2055 | pi sp | kc al | 5.0 |
| 4 | Holland, Greg 2906 | pi cp | col nl | 5.0 |
| 5 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 4.7 |
| 6 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 4.0 |
| 7 | Kimbrel, Craig 2825 | pi cp | bos al | 4.0 |
| 8 | Paxton, James 3280 | pi sp | sea al | 4.0 |
| 9 | Harper, Bryce 3011 | rf | dc nl | 4.0 |
| 10 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 3.7 |
Player of the Day—Miranda struck out seven over 5 1/3 innings, allowing one run and two hits, in the 3-1 win over the Indians.
National League Player of the Day—Travis d’Arnaud of the Mets hit two homers and went 3-for-3, driving in five runs, in the 7-5 win over the Nationals.
American League Batter of the Day—Matt Holliday of the Yankees hit a 10th-inning, three-run walk-off home run in the 14-11, 10th-inning win over the Orioles. Holliday also doubled and went 3-for-5, scoring three times.
Holliday also has now earned Box-Toppers points in 14 consecutive seasons. He earned his first points in 2004 with the Rockies and has 99.3 career points, fifth among active AL batters. His best season was 2007 with the Rockies when he had 16.2 points, first among NL batters. In 2016, he had 6.0 points with the Cardinals.
National League Batter of the Day—There is no separate NL Batter of the Day for Friday because the overall NL Player of the Day is batter Travis d’Arnaud.
Rankings—Two closing pitchers rise in Box-Toppers top 10 season player rankings after both earned Player of the Game honors Friday:
- Greg Holland of the Rockies (1IP 0H 0R 0BB K Sv in the 3-1 win over the Diamondbacks) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 5.0 for the season, rising to fourth place among all players, second among NL pitchers, behind Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers (6.0).
- Craig Kimbrel of the Red Sox (1IP H 0R 0BB 3K Sv in the 5-4 win over the Cubs) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers points, giving him 4.0 for the season, rising to seventh place among all players, fourth among AL pitchers.
Debut—Gift Ngoepe of the Pirates made his Box-Toppers debut Friday, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Ngoepe (3B 3-3 2R BI in the 12-2 win over the Marlins) made his Major League debut April 26 and was playing in his second career game. He is the 3,779th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Scoring—Miranda earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and d’Arnaud earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Holliday earns 1.5 points for being AL Batter of the Day. All of Friday’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| 4/28 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 6.1 | SEA 3, CLE 1 | Ariel Miranda (W,2-2) | - | - | - | - | 5.1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | |
| NL | 6.0 | NYM 7, WSH 5 | Travis d'Arnaud, C | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 6.0 | HOU 9, OAK 4 | Charlie Morton (W,2-2) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 12 | ||
| 5.0 | LAD 5, PHI 3 | Kenta Maeda (W,2-2) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 8 | ||
| 5.0 | `LAA 6, TEX 3 | Tyler Skaggs | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | ||
| BAT | 4.0 | NYY 14, BAL 11 (F/10) | Matt Holliday, DH | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 4.0 | MIN 6, KC 4 | Miguel Sano, 3B | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 4.0 | CHW 7, DET 3 | Anthony Swarzak (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | PIT 12, MIA 2 | Gift Ngoepe, 2B-SS | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | BOS 5, CHC 4 | Craig Kimbrel (S,8) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 3.0 | ATL 10, MIL 8 | Jose Ramirez (W,1-1) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.1 | STL 7, CIN 5 | Seung-Hwan Oh (S,6) | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 2.0 | SF 4, SD 3 | Brandon Belt, LF-1B | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | COL 3, ARI 1 | Greg Holland (S,10) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 1.2 | TB 7, TOR 4 | Chase Whitley (S,1) | - | - | - | - | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 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 | +/- |
| Holland, Greg 2906 | pi cp | col nl | 5.0 | 5.0 | 35.0 | 38.0 | 5.0 |
| Kimbrel, Craig 2825 | pi cp | bos al | 4.0 | 12.0 | 56.7 | 62.7 | -4.0 |
| Miranda, Ariel 3738 | pi sp | sea al | 3.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 1.0 |
| Sano, Miguel 3527 | 3b | min al | 2.5 | 5.5 | 11.5 | 11.5 | -0.5 |
| Whitley, Chase 3352 | pi mr sp | tb al | 2.0 | 2.0 | 5.7 | 5.7 | 2.0 |
| d’Arnaud, Travis 3384 | ca | nym nl | 1.7 | 2.7 | 9.2 | 9.2 | 0.7 |
| Holliday, Matt 1836 | dh lf | nyy al | 1.5 | 7.5 | 34.7 | 99.3 | -4.5 |
| Maeda, Kenta 3609 | pi sp | lad nl | 1.0 | 11.0 | 11.0 | 11.0 | -9.0 |
| Belt, Brandon 2943 | 1b lf | sf nl | 1.0 | 8.0 | 20.0 | 21.5 | -6.0 |
| Oh, Seung Hwan 3693 | pi cp | stl nl | 1.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | -4.0 |
| Morton, Charlie 2503 | pi sp | hou al | 1.0 | 4.0 | 17.7 | 28.7 | -2.0 |
| Skaggs, Tyler 3183 | pi sp | ana al | 1.0 | 3.7 | 13.4 | 13.4 | -1.7 |
| Ramirez, Jose A. 3716 | pi mr | atl nl | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 |
| Swarzak, Anthony 2603 | pi mr | chi al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 5.0 | 8.7 | 1.0 |
| Ngoepe, Gift 3779 | 2b ss | pit nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |