Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and ranks fourth in season player rankings.
Also Monday, Diamondbacks pitcher Zack Greinke rises to ninth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of June 26:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 16.4 |
| 2 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 13.0 |
| 3 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 12.4 |
| 4 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 12.1 |
| 5 | Ray, Robbie 3502 | pi sp | ari nl | 10.0 |
| 6 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 9.4 |
| 7 | McCullers, Lance 3488 | pi sp | hou al | 9.4 |
| 8 | Wood, Alex 3246 | pi sp | lad nl | 9.0 |
| 9 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | ari nl | 8.7 |
| 10 | Judge, Aaron 3767 | rf | nyy al | 8.2 |
Player of the Day—Sale struck out nine over 6 1/3 innings, allowing one run, four hits and two walks, in the 4-1 win over the Twins.
Sale earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 12.1 for the season. He maintains his rank of fourth place in season player rankings, second place among American League pitchers, behind Ervin Santana of the Twins (12.4).
National League Player of the Day—Jedd Gyorko of the Cardinals homered and went 2-for-3, driving in three runs, in the 8-2 win over the Reds.
American League Batter of the Day—Lonnie Chisenhall of the Indians went 3-for-5, scoring twice and driving in three runs, in the 15-9 win over the Rangers.
All-time leaders
Here are Box-Toppers top 20 players since record keeping began in 1995:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Randy Johnson | pi sp | retired | 278.8 |
| 2 | Pedro Martinez | pi sp | retired | 244.8 |
| 3 | Clayton Kershaw | pi sp | lad nl | 200.1 |
| 4 | Curt Schilling | pi sp | retired | 194.1 |
| 5 | CC Sabathia | pi sp | nyy al | 190.0 |
| 6 | Alex Rodriguez | dh | released | 187.0 |
| 7 | Albert Pujols | 1b dh | ana al | 184.3 |
| 8 | Roy Halladay | pi sp | retired | 170.7 |
| 9 | Felix Hernandez | pi sp | sea al | 169.7 |
| 10 | Manny Ramirez | lf dh | retired | 167.2 |
| 11 | Johan Santana | pi sp | free agent | 166.6 |
| 12 | Zack Greinke | pi sp | ari nl | 164.8 |
| 13 | Roger Clemens | pi sp | retired | 164.8 |
| 14 | John Smoltz | pi sp | retired | 160.9 |
| 15 | Tim Hudson | pi sp | retired | 157.0 |
| 16 | Mike Mussina | pi sp | retired | 155.6 |
| 17 | Barry Bonds | lf | retired | 153.2 |
| 18 | Greg Maddux | pi sp | retired | 151.7 |
| 19 | Bartolo Colon | pi sp | atl nl | 151.2 |
| 20 | Chipper Jones | 3b | retired | 149.0 |
List of top 100 players since 1995 at the close of the 2016 season.
National League Batter of the Day—There is no separate NL Batter of the Day for Monday because the overall NL Player of the Day is batter Jedd Gyorko.
Rankings—Diamondbacks pitcher Zack Greinke rises to ninth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Monday.
Greinke (5IP 3H R 3BB 5K W in the 6-1 win over the Phillies) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 8.7 for the season. He ranks fifth among NL pitchers.
Greinke also now rises to 12th place in career Box-Toppers points among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. With his point Monday, Greinke has 164.8 career points and passes Roger Clemens (164.8) on the “all-time” list. (Though both Greinke and Clemens have identical career Box-Toppers point totals, Greinke ranks higher because he has more Box-Toppers points in 2017.) And it should be noted that Clemens’ entire career from 1984 was not tracked by Box-Toppers—only his career from 1995 on. If his entire career were tracked, rough projections put his career Box-Toppers point total at 320.
Greinke now trails 11th-ranked player Johan Santana (166.6) on the “all-time” Box-Toppers career points list.
Scoring—Sale earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Gyorko earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Chisenhall earns 1.5 points for being AL 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.
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Top player from each game
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score| 6/26 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 7.1 | BOS 4, MIN 1 | Chris Sale (W, 10-3) | - | - | - | - | 6.1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 | |
| 7.0 | NYY 6, CHW 5 | Jordan Montgomery (W, 6-4) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | ||
| 4.1 | LAA 4, LAD 0 | Ricky Nolasco (W, 3-9) | - | - | - | - | 6.1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | ||
| BAT | 3.0 | CLE 15, TEX 9 | Lonnie Chisenhall (RF) | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| NL | 3.0 | STL 8, CIN 2 | Jedd Gyorko (3B) | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 2.0 | SF 9, COL 2 | Buster Posey (C) | 4 | 0 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | ARI 6, PHI 1 | Zack Greinke (W, 9-4) | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | ||
| 1.0 | CHC 5, WSH 4 | Albert Almora Jr. (CF) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 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 | 12.1 | 25.5 | 93.5 | 98.5 | -1.3 |
| Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | ari nl | 8.7 | 18.4 | 87.7 | 164.8 | -1.0 |
| Posey, Buster 2745 | ca 1b | sf nl | 5.5 | 9.0 | 34.0 | 38.5 | 2.0 |
| Chisenhall, Lonnie 2959 | rf cf | cle al | 3.5 | 7.0 | 15.0 | 17.0 | 0.0 |
| Montgomery, Jordan 3814 | pi sp | nyy al | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| Nolasco, Ricky 2125 | pi sp | ana al | 2.0 | 13.4 | 30.1 | 89.2 | -9.4 |
| Almora, Albert Jr. 3764 | cf | chi nl | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Gyorko, Jedd 3164 | 3b | stl nl | 1.7 | 4.2 | 16.9 | 16.9 | -0.8 |