Orioles pitcher Dylan Bundy is Tuesday’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. 29:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 23.0 |
| 2 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 22.1 |
| 3 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 22.1 |
| 4 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | ari nl | 15.4 |
| 5 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 15.1 |
| 6 | Severino, Luis 3567 | pi sp | nyy al | 15.1 |
| 7 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 15.0 |
| 8 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 14.7 |
| 9 | Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 14.4 |
| 10 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 14.4 |
Also Tuesday, Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale maintained his third-place spot in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors. Sale also bolstered his Box-Toppers points lead among American League pitchers.
Player of the Day—Bundy pitched a complete-game, one-hit shutout, striking out 12 and walking two, in the 4-0 win over the Mariners.
National League Player of the Day—Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta pitched six scoreless innings, allowing two hits, two walks and striking out four, in the 4-1 win over the Pirates.
National League Batter of the Day—Scott Schebler of the Reds hit a grand slam and went 2-for-4, scoring twice and driving in five runs, in the 14-4 win over the Mets.
American League Batter of the Day—Shin-Soo Choo of the Rangers homered and went 3-for-6, scoring three times and driving in four runs, in the 12-2 win over the Astros.
Rankings—Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale maintained his third-place spot in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday.
Sale (7IP 3H 0R 0BB 11K W in the 3-0 win over the Blue Jays) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 22.1 for the season. While that is the same season Box-Toppers point total as second-place player Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers pitcher ranks higher because he had more 2016 Box-Toppers points than Sale—24.4 vs. 13.4.
Sale increases his lead among AL pitchers, leading second-place Carlos Carrasco of the Indians (15.1) by 6.0 Box-Toppers points. Carrasco would need at least three starts to catch Sale.
Sale could have passed second-place Kershaw and also could have risen passed Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer (23.0), who only took the lead Monday, if he had earned overall Player of the Day honors. That would have given Sale 23.1 Box-Toppers points. And Sale nearly did that. He had a Box-Toppers game score Tuesday of +15.0, normally high enough to earn Player of the Day honors. But he was beaten by Tuesday’s Player of the Day Dylan Bundy of the Orioles, who had a Box-Toppers game score of +18.0, pitching a complete-game, one-hit shutout.
Sale also now has 108.5 career Box-Toppers points, rising to 59th place among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. With his point Tuesday, he passes three players on the “all-time” list—Carlos Beltran of the Astros (107.6), Lance Berkman (108.1) and Kevin Millwood (108.3). He trails 58th-ranked player Billy Wagner (108.7).
Top 10 watch—Twins pitcher Ervin Santana (14.4 Box-Toppers points, ranked 10th) started Tuesday but did not earn Player of the Game honors or Box-Toppers points.
Santana (6.2IP 7H 3R 2BB 7K W in the 6-4 win over the White Sox) had a Box-Toppers game score of -1.8. Player of the Game was Jorge Polanco of the Twins (HR 2-3 2R 2BI) with a Box-Toppers game score of +3.0.
Scoring—Bundy earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Arrieta earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Schebler and Choo 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| 8/29 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 18.0 | BAL 4, SEA 0 | Dylan Bundy (W, 13-8) | - | - | - | - | 9.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 12 | |
| 15.0 | BOS 3, TOR 0 | Chris Sale (W, 15-6) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | ||
| 8.2 | KC 6, TB 2 | Jake Junis (W, 6-2) | - | - | - | - | 5.2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | ||
| NL | 6.0 | CHC 4, PIT 1 | Jake Arrieta (W, 14-8) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | |
| 6.0 | LAA 8, OAK 2 | Jesse Chavez (W, 7-10) | - | - | - | - | 4.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | ||
| BAT | 5.0 | CIN 14, NYM 4 | Scott Schebler RF | 4 | 2 | 2 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| BAT | 4.0 | TEX 12, HOU 2 | Shin-Soo Choo DH | 6 | 3 | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | WSH 8, MIA 3 | Anthony Rendon 3B | 3 | 0 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | MIN 6, CHW 4 | Jorge Polanco SS | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | COL 7, DET 3 | DJ LeMahieu 2B | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.2 | STL 10, MIL 2 | Luke Weaver (W, 3-1) | - | - | - | - | 5.2 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 10 | ||
| 2.0 | SD 6, SF 3 | Manuel Margot CF | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | ARI 7, LAD 6 | Brandon Drury 2B | 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 | +/- |
| Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 22.1 | 35.5 | 103.5 | 108.5 | 8.7 |
| Bundy, Dylan 3655 | pi sp | bal al | 9.4 | 15.4 | 15.4 | 15.4 | 3.4 |
| Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | chi nl | 6.7 | 22.4 | 77.2 | 82.2 | -9.0 |
| Rendon, Anthony 3258 | 3b | dc nl | 6.5 | 12.0 | 18.5 | 18.5 | 1.0 |
| Choo, Shin-Soo 2267 | rf dh | tex al | 5.0 | 6.0 | 26.0 | 52.7 | 4.0 |
| LeMahieu, DJ 3091 | 2b | col nl | 4.5 | 12.5 | 25.5 | 25.5 | -3.5 |
| Drury, Brandon 3744 | 2b | ari nl | 4.5 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 3.0 |
| Weaver, Luke 3719 | pi sp | stl nl | 4.0 | 5.7 | 5.7 | 5.7 | 2.3 |
| Chavez, Jesse 2780 | pi sp | ana al | 4.0 | 4.0 | 23.1 | 24.1 | 4.0 |
| Junis, Jake 3857 | pi mr | kc al | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| Polanco, Jorge 3739 | ss | min al | 2.5 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 1.0 |
| Schebler, Scott 3897 | rf | cin nl | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 |
| Margot, Manuel 3861 | cf | sd nl | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |