Padres pitcher Clayton Richard is Wednesday’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 Aug. 16:| 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 |
Also Wednesday, Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs extended his season Box-Toppers points lead among National League batters after earning Player of the Game honors, becoming the 19th player—and second batter—in 2017 with 10 or more Box-Toppers points.
Player of the Day—Richard pitched a three-hit, complete-game shutout, striking out six and walking one, in the 3-0 win over the Phillies.
American League Player of the Day—Astros pitcher Charlie Morton struck out nine over 6 1/3 innings, allowing one run, three hits and four walks, in the 9-5 win over the Diamondbacks.
National League Batter of the Day—Trevor Story of the Rockies hit two home runs and and went 3-for-4, scoring twice and driving in six runs, in the 17-2 win over the Braves.
American League Batter of the Day—Elvis Andrus of the Rangers homered and went 3-for-5, scoring three times and driving in four runs, in the 12-6 win over the Tigers.
Rankings—Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs bolsters his lead among NL batters after earning Player of the Game honors Thursday.
Rizzo (GS 2B 2-4 2R 4BI in the 7-6 win over the Reds) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 10.5 for the season, most of any of the 14 who earned Player of the Game honors Wednesday. Rizzo becomes the 19th player and second batter with 10 or more Box-Toppers points in 2017 (the other batter is Edwin Encarnacion of the Indians with 11.1). Rizzo ranks 15th among all players in Box-Toppers points. He leads second-place NL batter Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers (8.7). This is the first season Rizzo has earned 10 or more points. He made his Box-Toppers debut in 2012 and his previous high season was 2015 with the Cubs, when he had 8.5 points.
Debut—Tomas Telis of the Marlins made his Box-Toppers debut Wednesday with his first career Player of the Game honor.
Telis (2B 2-4 R 3BI in the 8-1 win over the Giants) made his Major League debut Aug. 25, 2014, and was playing in his 72nd career game. He is the 3,885th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Scoring—Richard earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Morton earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Story and Andrus each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Wednesday’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| 8/16 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 11.0 | SD 3, PHI 0 | Clayton Richard (W, 6-12) | - | - | - | - | 9.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | |
| BAT | 7.0 | COL 17, ATL 2 | Trevor Story SS | 4 | 2 | 3 | 6 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| AL | 6.1 | HOU 9, ARI 5 | Charlie Morton (W, 10-5) | - | - | - | - | 6.1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 9 | |
| BAT | 5.0 | TEX 12, DET 6 | Elvis Andrus SS | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 4.0 | CHC 7, CIN 6 | Anthony Rizzo 1B | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 4.0 | `NYY 5, NYM 3 | Adam Warren (H, 10) | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 3.0 | SEA 7, BAL 6 | Yonder Alonso 1B | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | BOS 5, STL 4 | Craig Kimbrel (W, 5-0) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | MIA 8, SF 1 | Tomas Telis 1B | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | MIL 7, PIT 6 | Keon Broxton CF | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | KC 7, OAK 6 | Lorenzo Cain CF | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | LAD 5, CHW 4 | Logan Forsythe 2B | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | TOR 3, TB 2 | Steve Pearce LF | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | LAA 3, WSH 2 | Luis Valbuena 3B | 3 | 1 | 2 | 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 | +/- |
| Rizzo, Anthony 3063 | 1b | chi nl | 10.5 | 13.5 | 37.5 | 37.5 | 7.5 |
| Kimbrel, Craig 2825 | pi cp | bos al | 8.7 | 16.7 | 61.4 | 67.4 | 0.7 |
| Andrus, Elvis 2582 | ss | tex al | 7.5 | 16.7 | 21.7 | 27.2 | -1.7 |
| Broxton, Keon 3785 | cf | mil nl | 6.5 | 6.5 | 6.5 | 6.5 | 6.5 |
| Richard, Clayton 2584 | pi sp | sd nl | 6.0 | 8.0 | 16.2 | 35.6 | 4.0 |
| Morton, Charlie 2503 | pi sp | hou al | 5.7 | 8.7 | 22.4 | 33.4 | 2.7 |
| Pearce, Steve 2371 | lf | tor al | 5.5 | 7.5 | 19.5 | 21.5 | 3.5 |
| Alonso, Yonder 2945 | 1b | sea al | 5.0 | 7.0 | 16.5 | 18.0 | 3.0 |
| Cain, Lorenzo 3171 | cf | kc al | 4.5 | 11.0 | 25.2 | 25.2 | -2.0 |
| Story, Trevor 3607 | ss | col nl | 2.5 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | -4.0 |
| Warren, Adam 3169 | pi mr | nyy al | 2.0 | 5.0 | 12.7 | 12.7 | -1.0 |
| Forsythe, Logan 3364 | 2b | lad nl | 1.0 | 3.5 | 6.5 | 6.5 | -1.5 |
| Valbuena, Luis 2600 | 3b | ana al | 1.0 | 2.5 | 11.5 | 14.5 | -0.5 |
| Telis, Tomas 3885 | 1b | fla nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |