Indians pitcher Danny Salazar is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Tuesday, Dodgers pitcher Alex Wood rises to seventh 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 Aug. 15:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 22.1 |
| 2 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 22.0 |
| 3 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 21.1 |
| 4 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | ari nl | 15.4 |
| 5 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 14.4 |
| 6 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 14.0 |
| 7 | Wood, Alex 3246 | pi sp | lad nl | 14.0 |
| 8 | Paxton, James 3280 | pi sp | sea al | 13.7 |
| 9 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 13.4 |
| 10 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 12.7 |
Player of the Day—Salazar struck out 10 over seven innings, allowing one run, three hits and no walks, in the 8-1 win over the Twins.
National League Player of the Day—Reds pitcher Luis Castillo struck out seven over six scoreless innings, allowing two hits and two walks, in the 2-1 win over the Cubs. Castillo did not earn the win, picking up a no-decision, because the game was in a scoreless tie when he exited.
National League Batter of the Day—Denard Span of the Giants homered and went 3-for-4, scoring three times and driving in two runs, in the 9-4 win over the Marlins.
American League Batter of the Day—Matt Joyce of the Athletics homered, doubled and went 2-for-5, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 10-8 win over the Royals.
Rankings—Dodgers pitcher Alex Wood rises from ninth to seventh place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday.
Wood (7IP 6H R 0BB 6K ND in the 6-1 win over the White Sox) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 14.0 for the season. He ranks fourth among NL pitchers.
Top 10 watch—Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom (12.7 Box-Toppers points in 2017, ranked 10th) started Tuesday, but did not earn Player of the Game honors.
deGrom (7.1IP 9H 5R 2BB 4K L in the 5-4 loss to the Yankees) had a Box-Toppers game score of -9.9. Player of the Game was Gary Sanchez of the Yankees (HR 2-3 R 2BI), who had a Box-Toppers game score of +2.0.
Scoring—Salazar earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Castillo earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Span and Joyce 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.
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| 8/15 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 12.0 | CLE 8, MIN 1 | Danny Salazar (W, 5-5) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 10 | |
| NL | 9.0 | `CIN 2, CHC 1 | Luis Castillo | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | |
| 6.0 | SD 8, PHI 4 | Dinelson Lamet (W, 7-4) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | ||
| 6.0 | `SEA 3, BAL 1 | Emilio Pagan (H, 2) | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | ||
| 5.1 | HOU 9, ARI 4 | Francis Martes (W, 5-2) | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | ||
| 5.0 | WSH 3, LAA 1 | Gio Gonzalez (W, 11-5) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | ||
| 5.0 | `LAD 6, CHW 1 | Alex Wood | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | ||
| BAT | 4.0 | SF 9, MIA 4 | Denard Span CF | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| BAT | 3.0 | OAK 10, KC 8 | Matt Joyce RF | 5 | 2 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | TEX 10, DET 4 | Mike Napoli 1B | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | TB 6, TOR 4 | Alex Colomé (S, 35) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | ATL 4, COL 3 | Arodys Vizcaíno (S, 7) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | NYY 5, NYM 4 | Gary Sánchez C | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | MIL 3, PIT 1 | Keon Broxton PH-CF | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | BOS 10, STL 4 | Hanley Ramírez DH | 4 | 1 | 2 | 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 | +/- |
| Wood, Alex 3246 | pi sp | lad nl | 14.0 | 15.0 | 33.4 | 33.4 | 13.0 |
| Gonzalez, Gio 2626 | pi sp | dc nl | 7.0 | 13.0 | 64.1 | 93.5 | 1.0 |
| Castillo, Luis Miguel 3840 | pi sp | cin nl | 6.7 | 6.7 | 6.7 | 6.7 | 6.7 |
| Lamet, Dinelson 3808 | pi sp | sd nl | 6.7 | 6.7 | 6.7 | 6.7 | 6.7 |
| Colome, Alex 3189 | pi cp | tb al | 6.0 | 15.0 | 23.7 | 23.7 | -3.0 |
| Broxton, Keon 3785 | cf | mil nl | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5.5 |
| Salazar, Danny 3223 | pi sp | cle al | 5.0 | 17.5 | 40.3 | 40.3 | -7.5 |
| Napoli, Mike 2161 | dh 1b | tex al | 3.0 | 9.5 | 32.7 | 60.7 | -3.5 |
| Martes, Francis 3822 | pi sp cp mr | hou al | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| Joyce, Matt 2480 | rf dh | oak al | 2.5 | 6.5 | 20.7 | 32.2 | -1.5 |
| Ramirez, Hanley 2119 | dh 1b | bos al | 2.0 | 9.0 | 24.5 | 59.6 | -5.0 |
| Vizcaino, Arodys 3533 | pi cp | atl nl | 2.0 | 3.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 1.0 |
| Pagan, Emilio 3876 | pi mr | sea al | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Span, Denard 2502 | cf | sf nl | 1.5 | 4.5 | 11.2 | 27.2 | -1.5 |
| Sanchez, Gary 3701 | ca | nyy al | 1.0 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5.5 | -3.5 |