Diamondbacks pitcher Zack Grienke is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of May 11:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 7.0 |
| 2 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 6.7 |
| 3 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 6.7 |
| 4 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 6.0 |
| 5 | Vargas, Jason 2055 | pi sp | kc al | 6.0 |
| 6 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 5.4 |
| 7 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 5.4 |
| 8 | Triggs, Andrew 3723 | pi sp | oak al | 5.4 |
| 9 | Kimbrel, Craig 2825 | pi cp | bos al | 5.0 |
| 10 | Nova, Ivan 2796 | pi sp | pit nl | 5.0 |
Also Thursday, two players rise in Box-Toppers top 10 season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors—Royals pitcher Jason Vargas rises to fifth place and Astros pitcher Dallas Keuchel rises to seventh place.
Player of the Day—Greinke struck out 11 over eight innings, allowing one hit—an eighth-inning home run—in the 2-1 win over the Pirates. Greinke allowed just the one run and walked only one.
Greinke earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 160.8 for his career, 14th among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. He trails 13th-place player John Smoltz (160.9) on the “all-time” list. Greinke ranks fifth among all active players.
American League Player of the Day—Tigers pitcher Michael Fulmer struck out nine over six innings, allowing one run and five hits, in the 7-1 win over the Angels.
American League Batter of the Day—Justin Smoak of the Blue Jays homered and went 3-for-3, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 7-2 win over the Mariners.
National League Batter of the Day—Nolan Arenado of the Rockies hit two doubles and went 3-for-4, scoring three times and driving in two runs, in the 10-7 win over the Dodgers.
Rankings—Two players rise in Box-Toppers top 10 season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Thursday:
- Royals pitcher Jason Vargas (7IP 3H 0R BB 4K W in the 6-0 win over the Rays) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 6.0 for the season, rising to fifth place, third among AL pitchers.
- Astros pitcher Dallas Keuchel (6IP 5H R BB 9K W in the 3-2 win over the Yankees) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 5.4 for the season, rising to seventh place, fifth among AL pitchers.
Streak—Mike Napoli of the Rangers has now earned Box-Toppers points for 12 straight seasons after earning Player of the Game honors Thursday (2HR 2-3 2R 4BI in the 5-2 win over the Padres).
Napoli earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2006 with the Angels and has 58.7 career points, sixth among active AL first basemen. His best season was 2011 with the Rangers when he had 9.0 Box-Toppers points, ninth among AL batters. In 2016, he had 6.5 points with the Indians, ninth among AL first basemen.
Scoring—Greinke earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Fulmer earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Smoak and Arenado 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| 5/11 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 15.0 | ARI 2, PIT 1 | Zack Greinke (W,4-2) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 11 | |
| 8.0 | HOU 3, NYY 2 | Dallas Keuchel (W,6-0) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 9 | ||
| AL | 7.0 | DET 7, LAA 1 | Michael Fulmer (W,4-1) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | |
| 7.0 | KC 6, TB 0 | Jason Vargas (W,5-1) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | ||
| BAT | 6.0 | TOR 7, SEA 2 | Justin Smoak, 1B | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 6.0 | `BOS 4, MIL 1 | Eduardo Rodriguez | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | ||
| 5.0 | TEX 5, SD 2 | Mike Napoli, DH | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 4.2 | MIN 7, CHW 6 | Brandon Kintzler (S,8) | - | - | - | - | 1.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| BAT | 4.0 | COL 10, LAD 7 | Nolan Arenado, 3B | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 2.1 | CIN 3, SF 2 | Wandy Peralta (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
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 | +/- |
| Vargas, Jason 2055 | pi sp | kc al | 6.0 | 7.0 | 32.4 | 53.2 | 5.0 |
| Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 5.4 | 12.4 | 48.2 | 48.2 | -1.6 |
| Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | ari nl | 4.7 | 14.4 | 83.7 | 160.8 | -5.0 |
| Rodriguez, Eduardo 3480 | pi sp | bos al | 4.7 | 9.4 | 15.4 | 15.4 | 0.0 |
| Fulmer, Michael 3640 | pi sp | det al | 3.7 | 16.4 | 16.4 | 16.4 | -9.0 |
| Arenado, Nolan 3306 | 3b | col nl | 3.0 | 13.7 | 23.7 | 23.7 | -7.7 |
| Kintzler, Brandon 3150 | pi cp | min al | 3.0 | 3.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 3.0 |
| Smoak, Justin 2731 | 1b | tor al | 2.5 | 6.0 | 19.2 | 25.4 | -1.0 |
| Peralta, Wandy 3782 | pi mr | cin nl | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Napoli, Mike 2161 | dh 1b | tex al | 1.0 | 7.5 | 30.7 | 58.7 | -5.5 |