Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to 10th in season player rankings.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of May 16:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 8.4 |
| 2 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 7.7 |
| 3 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 7.0 |
| 4 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 6.0 |
| 5 | Harper, Bryce 3011 | rf | dc nl | 6.0 |
| 6 | Vargas, Jason 2055 | pi sp | kc al | 6.0 |
| 6 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 5.4 |
| 8 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 5.4 |
| 9 | Triggs, Andrew 3723 | pi sp | oak al | 5.4 |
| 10 | Darvish, Yu 3003 | pi sp | tex al | 5.0 |
Also Tuesday, Bryce Harper of the Nationals rises to fifth place in season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Player of the Day—Darvish struck out nine over seven innings, allowing one run and four hits, in the 5-1 win over the Phillies.
Darvish earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 5.0 for the season, rising to 10th place in season player rankings, seventh among American League pitchers.
National League Player of the Day—Charlie Blackmon of the Rockies homered and went 3-for-5, scoring once and driving in three runs, in the 7-3 win over the Twins.
American League Batter of the Day—Chris Davis of the Orioles homered twice and doubled, going 3-for-5, scoring three times and driving in four runs, in the 13-11, 13-inning win over the Tigers.
Davis had a Box-Toppers game score of +5.0, which was tied with Jake Marisnick of the Astros, who was Player of the Game in the 12-2 win over the Marlins. Marisnick had a very similar line score to Davis, homering twice, doubling and going 3-for-5, scoring three times and driving in four runs. But Davis beat Marisnick to earn AL Batter of the Day on a tiebreaker—he had more walks Tuesday (two vs. zero).
National League Batter of the Day—There is no separate NL Batter of the Day for Tuesday because the overall NL Player of the Day is batter Charlie Blackmon.
Rankings—Bryce Harper of the Nationals rises to fifth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday.
Harper (HR 2-4 2R 2BI in the 8-4 win over the Pirates) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being Player of the Game, giving him 6.0 for the season. He maintains his rank as top-ranked batter and is the only batter among the top 10 in Box-Toppers player rankings.
Notable—Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia now has 188.0 career Box-Toppers points after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday (6.2IP 5H 0R 2BB 4K W in the 7-1 win over the Royals). Sabathia ranks fifth among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began, trailing fourth-place player and active career points leader, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (190.7).
Also notable—Matt Kemp of the Braves earned Player of the Game honors for the second straight day Tuesday. Kemp (2-5 R 4BI in the 9-5 win over the Blue Jays) also was Player of the Game Monday in the 10-6 win over the Blue Jays. He has 3.5 Box-Toppers points on the season, fifth among NL batters.
Debut—Two players made their Box-Toppers debut Tuesday, the first time in their careers they earned Player of the Game honors:
- Rays pitcher Jose Alvarado (2IP 0H 0R 0BB K ND in the 6-4 win over the Indians) made his Major League debut May 3 and was playing in his seventh career game. He is the 3,797th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
- Ian Happ of the Cubs (HR 1-3 2R 2BI in the 9-5 win over the Reds) made his Major League debut May 13 and was playing in his third career game. He is the 3,798th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Scoring—Darvish earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Blackmon earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Davis earns 1.5 points for being AL Batter of the Day. All of Tuesday’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.
Box-Toppers strives for accuracy. See a mistake in a post? A wrong name, wrong team, grammar error, spelling goof, etc.? Thanks for pointing it out! Contact Box-Toppers here. Let's fix it and make it right.
Top player from each game
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score| 5/16 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 8.0 | TEX 5, PHI 1 | Yu Darvish (W,4-2) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 | |
| BAT | 5.0 | BAL 13, DET 11 (F/13) | Chris Davis, 1B | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 5.0 | HOU 12, MIA 2 | Jake Marisnick, CF | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.2 | NYY 7, KC 1 | CC Sabathia (W,3-2) | - | - | - | - | 6.2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | ||
| 3.0 | LAA 7, CHW 6 (F/11) | Cameron Maybin, LF | 6 | 2 | 5 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | OAK 9, SEA 6 | Mark Canha, CF | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | `TB 6, CLE 4 | Jose Alvarado (H,2) | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| NL | 2.0 | COL 7, MIN 3 | Charlie Blackmon, CF | 5 | 1 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 2.0 | ATL 9, TOR 5 | Matt Kemp, LF | 5 | 1 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | MIL 6, SD 2 | Eric Sogard, 3B | 4 | 1 | 4 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | WSH 8, PIT 4 | Bryce Harper, RF | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | BOS 6, STL 3 | Jackie Bradley Jr., CF | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | CHC 9, CIN 5 | Ian Happ, CF-LF | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | SF 2, LAD 1 | Ty Blach (W,1-2) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | ||
| 2.0 | ARI 5, NYM 4 | Fernando Rodney (S,10) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 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 | +/- |
| Harper, Bryce 3011 | rf | dc nl | 6.0 | 9.0 | 33.4 | 33.4 | 3.0 |
| Darvish, Yu 3003 | pi sp | tex al | 5.0 | 15.4 | 60.6 | 60.6 | -5.4 |
| Kemp, Matt 2151 | lf | atl nl | 3.5 | 11.0 | 34.0 | 62.6 | -4.0 |
| Sabathia, C.C. 1492 | pi sp | nyy al | 3.0 | 9.0 | 35.5 | 188.0 | -3.0 |
| Maybin, Cameron 2672 | lf | ana al | 2.0 | 5.0 | 10.5 | 17.5 | -1.0 |
| Sogard, Eric 3174 | ss 3b 2b | mil nl | 2.0 | 2.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 2.0 |
| Blackmon, Charlie 2891 | cf | col nl | 1.7 | 5.7 | 12.2 | 13.7 | -2.3 |
| Davis, Chris 2478 | 1b | bal al | 1.5 | 9.0 | 50.9 | 59.4 | -6.0 |
| Bradley, Jackie Jr. 3293 | cf | bos al | 1.0 | 6.5 | 17.0 | 17.0 | -4.5 |
| Rodney, Fernando 1803 | pi cp | ari nl | 1.0 | 6.0 | 24.0 | 36.0 | -4.0 |
| Blach, Ty 3754 | pi sp | sf nl | 1.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | -1.0 |
| Marisnick, Jake 3428 | cf | hou al | 1.0 | 2.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 0.0 |
| Canha, Mark 3454 | cf | oak al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 1.0 |
| Alvarado, Jose 3797 | pi mr | tb al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Happ, Ian 3798 | cf lf | chi nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |