Dodgers' Alex Wood tops players for Monday, May 8; Cardinals' Martinez rises to 10th in player rankings

Dodgers pitcher Alex Wood is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

Also Monday, Cardinals pitcher Carlos Martinez rises to 10th place in season Box-Toppers player rankings after becoming the second pitcher of the season to earn Player of the Game honors for batting.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of May 8:  


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 Kimbrel, Craig 2825 pi cp bos al 5.0
6 Nova, Ivan 2796 pi sp pit nl 5.0
7 Vargas, Jason 2055 pi sp kc al 5.0
8 Holland, Greg 2906 pi cp col nl 5.0
9 Judge, Aaron 3767 rf nyy al 5.0
10 Martinez, Carlos 3371 pi sp stl nl 4.5
What are those numbers after players' names?

Player of the Day—Wood struck out 11 over five scoreless innings, allowing two hits and one walk, in the 12-1 win over the Pirates.

American League Player of the Day—Orioles pitcher Kevin Gausman struck out eight over seven innings, allowing two runs and five hits, in the 6-4 win over the Nationals.

National League Batter of the Day—Cardinals pitcher Carlos Martinez doubled and went 2-for-3, scoring once and driving in four runs, in the 9-4 win over the Marlins.

Martinez earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being NL Batter of the Day, giving him 4.5 for the season, rising to 10th in Box-Toppers season player rankings and fifth among NL pitchers.

He also becomes the second pitcher this season to earn Player of the Game honors for batting. Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright did it on April 21. Not only has the feat been accomplished both times by Cardinals, but both pitchers also earned NL Batter of the Day honors when they did it.

This is the second time in his career Martinez has earned Player of the Game honors for batting. He also did it Sept. 19, 2016. During the 2016 season, pitchers won Player of the Game honors for batting eight times.

Martinez had a Box-Toppers game score of +4.0 for batting, highest among all Cardinals players Monday. He had a Box-Toppers game score of 0.0 for pitching (6IP 5H 3R 3ER 2BB 7K W).

American League Batter of the Day—Matt Holliday of the Yankees homered and went 2-for-4, scoring three times and driving in one run, in the 10-4 win over the Reds.

Holliday earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being AL Batter of the Day, giving him 100.8 for his career. He becomes the 77th player to earn 100 Box-Toppers points since 1995, when player tracking began. With his points Monday, he rises to 73rd on the “all-time” player list, passing six players—White Sox pitcher James Shields (99.4), Giants pitcher Johnny Cueto (99.8), Larry Walker (100.1), Jeff Bagwell (100.4), Paul Konerko (100.7) and Giants pitcher Matt Cain (100.7). Holliday now trails 72nd-ranked player Jason Schmidt (101.2).

Scoring—Wood earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Cahill earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Martinez and Holliday each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s 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.

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 

5/8 Score Game Player of the Game AB R H BI IP H R ER BB K
MLB 13.0 LAD 12, PIT 1 Alex Wood (W,3-0) - - - - 5.0 2 0 0 1 11
6.1 SD 5, TEX 1 Trevor Cahill (W,3-2) - - - - 5.1 1 0 0 5 7
AL 5.0 BAL 6, WSH 4 Kevin Gausman (W,2-3) - - - - 7.0 5 2 2 1 8
4.1 KC 7, TB 3 Nate Karns (W,2-2) - - - - 6.1 6 2 2 2 10
BAT 4.0 STL 9, MIA 4 Carlos Martinez, P 3 1 2 4 - - - - - -
4.0 `NYM 4, SF 3 Jacob deGrom - - - - 6.0 4 3 3 3 11
BAT 2.0 NYY 10, CIN 4 Matt Holliday, 1B 4 3 2 1 - - - - - -
2.0 TOR 4, CLE 2 Ryan Goins, SS 2 1 1 2 - - - - - -
1.0 OAK 3, LAA 2 (F/11) Jed Lowrie, 2B 5 2 2 2 - - - - - -
MLB—Overall Box-Toppers Player of the Day, worth 2.0 total Box-Toppers points.
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 +/-
Martinez, Carlos 3371 pi sp stl nl 4.5 16.9 31.6 31.6 -7.9
Cahill, Trevor 2658 pi sp sd nl 4.4 7.4 22.1 44.6 1.4
Holliday, Matt 1836 dh 1b lf nyy al 3.0 9.0 36.2 100.8 -3.0
Wood, Alex 3246 pi sp mr lad nl 3.0 4.0 22.4 22.4 2.0
Karns, Nathan 3414 pi sp kc al 2.7 5.7 11.7 11.7 -0.3
Goins, Ryan 3478 ss 2b tor al 2.0 3.5 8.0 8.0 0.5
Gausman, Kevin 3191 pi sp bal al 1.7 12.5 25.9 25.9 -9.1
deGrom, Jacob 3343 pi sp nym nl 1.0 10.7 46.1 46.1 -8.7
Lowrie, Jed 2437 2b ss oak al 1.0 2.0 16.5 28.0 0.0
What are those numbers after players' names?