Kendrys Morales of the Blue Jays is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, earning the sixth-highest Box-Toppers game score for a batter in 2017.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of Aug. 31:| 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 | 17.1 |
| 5 | Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 16.1 |
| 6 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 15.1 |
| 7 | Severino, Luis 3567 | pi sp | nyy al | 15.1 |
| 8 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 15.0 |
| 9 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 14.7 |
| 10 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 14.4 |
Also Thursday, Diamondbacks pitcher Zack Greinke rises to fourth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning National League Player of the Day honors.
Player of the Day—Morales hit three home runs, going 4-for-5, scoring four times and driving in seven runs, in the 11-8 win over the Orioles.
Morales had a Box-Toppers game score Thursday of +10.0, one of six players earning Player of the Game honors this season to achieve a game score that high this season. (See the chart below for all six Box-Toppers game scores of +10.0 or better by a batter in 2017.)
Morales earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 5.5 for the season, 22nd among American League batters.
National League Player of the Day—Diamondbacks pitcher Zack Greinke allowed one run over six innings, giving up four hits, two walks and striking out six, in the 8-1 win over the Dodgers.
Greinke earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day, giving him 17.1 for the season, rising from fifth to fourth in Box-Toppers season player rankings. He ranks third among NL pitchers, behind Max Scherzer of the Nationals (23.0) and Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers (22.1).
Greinke also now has 173.2 career Box-Toppers points, eighth-most among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. He trails seventh-ranked player Alex Rodriguez (187.0). Greinke ranks fourth among active players in career points, trailing third-ranked Albert Pujols of the Angels (187.8).
National League Batter of the Day—Scooter Gennett of the Reds homered, doubled and went 2-for-4, driving in three runs, in the 7-2 win over the Mets.
American League Batter of the Day—There is no separate AL Batter of the Day for Thursday because the overall Player of the Day is AL batter Kendrys Morales.
Top 10 watch—Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom (14.7 Box-Toppers points, ranked 9th) started Thursday but did not earn Player of the Game honors or Box-Toppers points.
deGrom (6IP 6H 4R 3ER 3BB 5K L in the 7-2 loss to the Reds) had a Box-Toppers game score of -5.0. Player of the Game (and NL Batter of the Day) was Scooter Gennett of the Reds with a Box-Toppers game score of +2.0.
Debuts—Two players made their Box-Toppers debuts Thursday, the first time in their careers they earned Player of the Game honors:
- Ehire Adrianza of the Twins (PH 1-1 R in the 5-4 win over the White Sox) made his Major League debut Sept. 8, 2013, and was playing in his 205th career game. He is the 3,902nd player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
- Phillies pitcher Ben Lively (1-3 2BI in the 3-2 win over the Marlins) is the fifth pitcher in 2017 to earn Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors for batting. He had a Box-Toppers game score of 0.0 for batting, which was the same as his game score for pitching (6IP 6H 2R BB 5K W). But in cases of game score ties, batters beat pitchers, so in this case, Lively’s batting score of 0.0 beat his pitching score of 0.0. Lively made his Major League debut June 3 and was playing in his 10th career game. He is the 3,903rd player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Kershaw—Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw returns from more than five weeks on the disabled list (back) to start Friday and could retake the season Box-Toppers points lead he lost only on Monday.
Kershaw (22.1 Box-Toppers points, ranked second) led in 2017 Box-Toppers rankings from May 17 to Aug. 28, when he was passed by Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer (23.0). Kershaw maintained his lead for five weeks even after going on the disabled list July 24. With his return in his start Friday against the Padres, he has the chance to pass Scherzer to retake the lead if he earns Player of the Game honors (worth 1.0 Box-Toppers point).
Scoring—Morales earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Greinke earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Gennett earns 1.5 points for being NL Batter of the Day. All of Thursday’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| 8/31 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 10.0 | TOR 11, BAL 8 | Kendrys Morales DH | 5 | 4 | 4 | 7 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| NL | 4.0 | ARI 8, LAD 1 | Zack Greinke (W, 16-6) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | |
| 3.0 | HOU 5, TEX 1 | Ken Giles (S, 27) | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | ||
| BAT | 2.0 | CIN 7, NYM 2 | Scooter Gennett 2B | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 2.0 | NYY 6, BOS 2 | Greg Bird 1B | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | STL 5, SF 2 | Randal Grichuk RF | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | CHC 6, ATL 2 | Jon Jay LF | 5 | 2 | 4 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | MIL 6, WSH 3 | Jonathan Villar 2B | 5 | 1 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | MIN 5, CHW 4 | Ehire Adrianza PH | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 0.0 | PHI 3, MIA 2 | Ben Lively P | 3 | 0 | 1 | 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 | +/- |
| Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | ari nl | 17.1 | 26.8 | 96.1 | 173.2 | 7.4 |
| Gennett, Scooter 3254 | 2b | cin nl | 9.7 | 12.2 | 21.2 | 21.2 | 7.2 |
| Grichuk, Randal 3474 | rf | stl nl | 8.0 | 9.0 | 18.5 | 18.5 | 7.0 |
| Morales, Kendrys 2142 | dh | tor al | 5.5 | 14.0 | 28.7 | 44.7 | -3.0 |
| Giles, Ken 3402 | pi cp | hou al | 4.0 | 7.0 | 12.0 | 12.0 | 1.0 |
| Villar, Jonathan 3233 | 2b | mil nl | 3.5 | 7.5 | 9.5 | 9.5 | -0.5 |
| Bird, Greg 3562 | 1b | nyy al | 2.5 | 2.5 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 2.5 |
| Jay, Jon 2861 | lf ph | chi nl | 2.0 | 2.0 | 11.5 | 14.0 | 2.0 |
| Adrianza, Ehire 3902 | ph | min al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Lively, Ben 3903 | pi sp | phi nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
Highest Box-Toppers game scores by batters in 2017
Here are the six highest Box-Toppers game scores earned by batters so far in 2017. These six batters earning Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors have had game scores of +10.0 or more this season, including Kendrys Morales Thursday. They are listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score.| Date | Bonus | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | |
| 1 | 4/30 | MLB | 15.0 | WSH 23, NYM 5 | Anthony Rendon, 3B | 6 | 5 | 6 | 10 |
| 2 | 6/6 | BAT | 14.0 | CIN 13, STL 1 | Scooter Gennett, LF | 5 | 4 | 5 | 10 |
| 3 | 7/19 | NL | 10.0 | COL 18, SD 4 | Nolan Arenado (3B) | 6 | 4 | 5 | 7 |
| 4 | 7/26 | BAT | 10.0 | KC 16, DET 2 | Eric Hosmer (1B) | 6 | 5 | 5 | 6 |
| 5 | 7/4 | AL | 10.0 | BOS 11, TEX 4 | Andrew Benintendi (LF) | 5 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| 6 | 8/31 | MLB | 10.0 | TOR 11, BAL 8 | Kendry Morales DH | 5 | 4 | 4 | 7 |
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.