Cardinals pitcher Michael Wacha is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Tuesday, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw extended his lead 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 July 18:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 22.1 |
| 2 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 19.0 |
| 3 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 13.1 |
| 4 | Wood, Alex 3246 | pi sp | lad nl | 13.0 |
| 5 | Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 12.4 |
| 6 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 12.4 |
| 7 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 11.4 |
| 8 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | ari nl | 11.4 |
| 9 | Quintana, Jose 3040 | pi sp | chi nl | 10.0 |
| 10 | Ray, Robbie 3502 | pi sp | ari nl | 10.0 |
Player of the Day—Wacha pitched a complete-game, three-hit shutout, striking out eight and walking one, in the 5-0 win over the Mets.
American League Player of the Day—Astros pitcher Brad Peacock struck out nine over seven innings, allowing one run, three hits and one walk in the 6-2 win over the Mariners.
American League Batter of the Day—Nicholas Castellanos of the Tigers homered twice and tripled, going 4-for-5 and driving in five runs, in the 9-3 win over the Royals.
National League Batter of the Day—Gerardo Parra of the Rockies doubled and went 3-for-3, scoring three times and driving in one run, in the 9-7 win over the Padres.
Rankings—Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw extends his lead in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday.
Kershaw (7IP 7H 0R BB 7K W in the 1-0 win over the White Sox) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 22.1 for the season, leading second-place player, Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer (19.0 Box-Toppers points).
Kershaw is on pace to earn about 38.0 Box-Toppers points in 2017, which would break the single-season record of 33.7, set by Randy Johnson of the Diamondbacks in both 2000 and 2002. Box-Toppers record keeping began in 1995.
Kershaw also now has 205.8 career Box-Toppers points, third-most among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. He trails second-ranked player Pedro Martinez (244.8). Kershaw leads all active players in career points.
Remarkably, Kershaw has more career Box-Toppers points than the combined total of the 14 others who earned Player of the Game honors Tuesday. The 14 other players have 190.5 career Box-Toppers points combined. Kershaw still beats them by more than 10.0 with 205.8. Granted, none of the other 14 has significantly high career Box-Toppers point totals—Bryce Harper of the Nationals has the most with 34.4, which ranks 540th among all players since 1995.
Notable—Phillies pitcher Pat Neshek Tuesday earned his first Player of the Game honor in nearly three years.
Neshek (1IP 0H 0R 0BB K W in the 5-2 win over the Marlins) last earned Player of the Game honors on Aug. 5, 2014. Despite his lack of recent Player of the Game honors and Box-Toppers points, Neshek was selected to be a 2017 National League All-Star.
Debut—Red Sox pitcher Hector Velazquez made his Box-Toppers debut Tuesday after earning his first career Player of the Game honor.
Velazquez (4IP 2H 0R BB 3K W in the 5-4, 15-inning win over the Blue Jays) made his Major League debut May 18 and was playing in his fourth career game. He is the 3,853rd player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Scoring—Wacha earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Peacock earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Castellanos and Parra each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s 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.
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Top player from each game
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score| 7/18 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 13.0 | STL 5, NYM 0 | Michael Wacha (W, 7-3) | - | - | - | - | 9.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | |
| AL | 10.0 | HOU 6, SEA 2 | Brad Peacock (W, 8-1) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | |
| BAT | 6.0 | DET 9, KC 3 | Nicholas Castellanos (3B) | 5 | 2 | 4 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 6.0 | LAD 1, CHW 0 | Clayton Kershaw (W, 15-2) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | ||
| 5.0 | `TB 4, OAK 3 | Erasmo Ramirez | - | - | - | - | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| BAT | 4.0 | COL 9, SD 7 | Gerardo Parra (LF) | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 4.0 | BOS 5, TOR 4 (F/15) | Hector Velazquez (W, 2-1) | - | - | - | - | 4.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | ||
| 3.0 | WSH 4, LAA 3 | Bryce Harper (RF) | 4 | 2 | 4 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | ARI 11, CIN 2 | Rey Fuentes (PH-CF) | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | BAL 12, TEX 1 | Dylan Bundy (W, 9-8) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||
| 2.0 | NYY 6, MIN 3 | Didi Gregorius (SS) | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | PHI 5, MIA 2 | Pat Neshek (W, 3-2) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 2.0 | PIT 4, MIL 3 | Felipe Rivero (S, 8) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 1.0 | CHC 5, ATL 1 | Javier Baez (2B) | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | SF 2, CLE 1 (F/10) | Sam Dyson (W, 1-1) | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
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 | +/- |
| Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 22.1 | 46.5 | 146.2 | 205.8 | -2.3 |
| Harper, Bryce 3011 | rf | dc nl | 7.0 | 10.0 | 34.4 | 34.4 | 4.0 |
| Parra, Gerardo 2746 | rf lf | col nl | 6.5 | 9.0 | 21.0 | 27.5 | 4.0 |
| Peacock, Brad 2968 | pi sp | hou al | 6.4 | 6.4 | 13.1 | 15.8 | 6.4 |
| Baez, Javier 3395 | 2b 3b | chi nl | 5.2 | 7.2 | 9.7 | 9.7 | 3.2 |
| Wacha, Michael 3276 | pi sp | stl nl | 5.0 | 7.0 | 24.7 | 24.7 | 3.0 |
| Bundy, Dylan 3655 | pi sp | bal al | 4.0 | 10.0 | 10.0 | 10.0 | -2.0 |
| Castellanos, Nicholas 3349 | 3b | det al | 3.5 | 9.0 | 17.2 | 17.2 | -2.0 |
| Ramirez, Erasmo 1786 | pi cp sp mr | tb al | 3.0 | 6.7 | 15.7 | 17.7 | -0.7 |
| Dyson, Sam 3399 | pi cp mr | sf nl | 3.0 | 3.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 3.0 |
| Rivero, Felipe 3579 | pi cp | pit nl | 3.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 3.0 |
| Gregorius, Didi 3184 | ss | nyy al | 2.0 | 4.0 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 0.0 |
| Neshek, Pat 2196 | pi mr | phi nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 4.0 | 12.0 | 1.0 |
| Fuentes, Reymond 3301 | cf ph | ari nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 1.0 |
| Velazquez, Hector 3853 | pi cp | bos al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |