Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola is Monday’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 July 3:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 18.1 |
| 2 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 16.0 |
| 3 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 13.1 |
| 4 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 12.4 |
| 5 | Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 10.4 |
| 6 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 10.4 |
| 7 | Ray, Robbie 3502 | pi sp | ari nl | 10.0 |
| 8 | Wood, Alex 3246 | pi sp | lad nl | 10.0 |
| 9 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | ari nl | 9.7 |
| 10 | McCullers, Lance 3488 | pi sp | hou al | 9.4 |
Also Monday, Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg rises to fifth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Player of the Day—Nola struck out eight over seven scoreless innings, allowing four hit and one walk, in the 4-0 win over the Pirates.
American League Player of the Day—Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka struck out eight over seven innings, allowing one run, five hits and one walk, in the 6-3 win over the Blue Jays.
American League Batter of the Day—Max Kepler of the Twins homered, doubled and went 4-for-4, driving in three runs, in the 9-5 win over the Angels.
National League Batter of the Day—Yadier Molina of the Cardinals hit two doubles and went 3-for-3, scoring once and driving in three runs, in the 14-6 win over the Marlins.
Molina earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being NL Batter of the Day, giving him 4.5 for the season, tied for his highest single-season Box-Toppers point total just barely halfway into the season. He previously had 4.5 Box-Toppers points in both 2010 and 2012 with the Cardinals. Molina has been earning Box-Toppers points since 2004. He currently ranks 12th among among NL batters this season and second among NL catchers, behind Buster Posey of the Giants (5.5).
Rankings—Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg rises from ninth to fifth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Monday.
Strasburg (7IP 2H 0R 3BB 6K ND in the 3-2 win over the Mets) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 10.4 for the season. He becomes the eighth player this season to reach 10 or more Box-Toppers points and has now reached 10 points in five seasons, including four in a row currently. Strasburg ranks third among NL pitchers in season Box-Toppers points, behind Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers (18.1) and Max Scherzer of the Nationals (16.0).
Debut—Brewers pitcher Brent Suter made his Box-Toppers debut Monday with his first career Player of the Game honor.
Suter (6IP 4H R 0ER BB 8K W in the 8-1 win over the Orioles) made his Major League debut Aug. 19, 2016, and was playing in his 23rd career game. He is the 3,843rd player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Scoring—Nola earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Tanaka earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Kepler and Molina 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| 7/3 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 10.0 | PHI 4, PIT 0 | Aaron Nola (W, 6-5) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | |
| 8.0 | MIL 8, BAL 1 | Brent Suter (W, 1-1) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 | ||
| 8.0 | `WSH 3, NYM 2 | Stephen Strasburg | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | ||
| AL | 7.0 | NYY 6, TOR 3 | Masahiro Tanaka (W, 7-7) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | |
| 5.2 | KC 3, SEA 1 | Ian Kennedy (W, 3-6) | - | - | - | - | 6.2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | ||
| 5.1 | CHW 7, OAK 2 | Carlos Rodon (W, 1-1) | - | - | - | - | 6.1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 10 | ||
| 5.0 | BOS 7, TEX 5 (F/11) | Heath Hembree (W, 1-2) | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| BAT | 4.0 | MIN 9, LAA 5 | Max Kepler (RF) | 4 | 1 | 4 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| BAT | 4.0 | STL 14, MIA 6 | Yadier Molina (C) | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | COL 5, CIN 3 | Greg Holland (S, 27) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 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 | +/- |
| Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 10.4 | 25.5 | 84.6 | 93.3 | -4.7 |
| Holland, Greg 2906 | pi cp | col nl | 8.0 | 8.0 | 38.0 | 41.0 | 8.0 |
| Tanaka, Masahiro 3305 | pi sp | nyy al | 6.4 | 20.5 | 41.2 | 41.2 | -7.7 |
| Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 5.7 | 12.4 | 14.4 | 14.4 | -1.0 |
| Molina, Yadier 1967 | ca | stl nl | 4.5 | 8.5 | 18.0 | 39.2 | 0.5 |
| Kennedy, Ian 2723 | pi sp | kc al | 4.0 | 14.0 | 45.1 | 70.5 | -6.0 |
| Kepler, Max 3664 | rf | min al | 1.5 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | -5.0 |
| Rodon, Carlos 3494 | pi sp | chi al | 1.0 | 9.0 | 17.1 | 17.1 | -7.0 |
| Hembree, Heath 3620 | pi cp | bos al | 1.0 | 2.7 | 2.7 | 2.7 | -0.7 |
| Suter, Brent 3843 | pi sp | mil nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |