Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish 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 Sept. 25:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 25.1 |
| 2 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 25.0 |
| 3 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 23.1 |
| 4 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 22.0 |
| 5 | Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 20.8 |
| 6 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | ari nl | 20.1 |
| 7 | Severino, Luis 3567 | pi sp | nyy al | 20.1 |
| 8 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 19.8 |
| 9 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 16.1 |
| 10 | Ray, Robbie 3502 | pi sp | ari nl | 16.0 |
Darvish struck out nine over seven innings, allowing one run, two hits and no walks, in the 9-3 win over the Padres.
Darvish earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 13.0 for the season, most among the 12 who earned Player of the Game honors Monday. Darvish ranks 19th among all players and 11th among National League pitchers.
American League Player of the Day—Marwin Gonzalez of the Astros homered and went 4-for-5, scoring three times and driving in three runs, in the 11-2 win over the Rangers.
National League Batter of the Day—Nick Hundley of the Giants homered and went 2-for-3, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 9-2 win over the Diamondbacks.
American League Batter of the Day—There is no separate AL Batter of the Day for Monday because the overall AL Player of the Day is batter Marwin Gonzalez.
Notable—Aaron Judge of the Yankees rises to second place in Box-Toppers points among AL batters after earning Player of the Game honors Monday.
Judge (2HR 2-4 2R 3BI in the 11-3 win over the Royals) now has 11.2 Box-Toppers points for the season, 23rd-most among all players and second among AL batters, behind Edwin Encarnacion of the Indians (12.1).
Judge now has 50 home runs on the season and Monday broke the record for most home runs by a rookie, previously held by Mark McGwire (49 in 1987 with the Athletics).
Also notable—White Sox pitcher James Shields now has 101.4 career Box-Toppers points after earning Player of the Game honors Monday.
Shields (7IP 4H 2R 2BB 8K W in the 4-2 win over the Angels) rises to 73rd place among all players in career points since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995. With his 1.0 point earned Monday, he passes six players on the “all-time” list—Paul Konerko (100.7), Giants pitcher Matt Cain (100.7), Matt Holliday of the Yankees (100.8), Jason Schmidt (101.2), Mark Teixeira (101.3) and Tim Wakefield (101.4). Shields now trails 72nd-ranked player, Giants pitcher Johnny Cueto (101.8).
Shields has 2.0 Box-Toppers points for the season.
Box-Toppers rankings lead—Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale has the chance to secure Box-Toppers Player of the Year honors if he earns Player of the Day honors in his start Tuesday.
Sale (25.1 Box-Toppers points in 2017, ranked first) starts against the Blue Jays Tuesday. He is currently 0.1 point ahead of second-place player, Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer (25.0). With less than a week to go in the season, both pitchers have, at most, one start remaining in the season. If Sale earns Player of the Day honors Tuesday (worth 2.0 points), he would have 27.1, making it impossible for Scherzer (or anyone else) to catch him (with one start remaining, Scherzer’s maximum potential Box-Toppers point total is 27.0).
If Sale earns less than Player of the Day, Scherzer would still have the chance to catch him. If Sale fails to earn any Box-Toppers points Tuesday, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (23.1 Box-Toppers points, ranked third) would also have the chance to catch or pass him.
Scoring—Darvish earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Gonzalez earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Hundley earns 1.5 points for being NL 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.
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Top player from each game
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score| 9/25 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 12.0 | LAD 9, SD 3 | Yu Darvish W (4-3) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 9 | |
| 11.0 | NYM 3, ATL 2 | Seth Lugo W (7-5) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | ||
| AL | 5.0 | HOU 11, TEX 2 | Marwin González LF-2B-SS | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| BAT | 5.0 | SF 9, ARI 2 | Nick Hundley C | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 5.0 | CHW 4, LAA 2 | James Shields W (5-7) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 | ||
| 4.0 | TOR 6, BOS 4 | Josh Donaldson 3B | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | NYY 11, KC 3 | Aaron Judge RF | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | SEA 7, OAK 1 | Mitchell Haniger RF | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | MIA 5, COL 4 | Miguel Rojas SS | 3 | 0 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | CHC 10, STL 2 | Kris Bryant 3B | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | ATL 9, NYM 2 | Rio Ruiz 3B | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | WSH 3, PHI 1 | Sean Doolittle S (21) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 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 | +/- |
| Darvish, Yu 3003 | pi sp | lad nl | 13.0 | 23.4 | 68.6 | 68.6 | 2.6 |
| Judge, Aaron 3767 | rf | nyy al | 11.2 | 11.2 | 11.2 | 11.2 | 11.2 |
| Donaldson, Josh 3144 | 3b | tor al | 8.0 | 17.7 | 47.6 | 47.6 | -1.7 |
| Gonzalez, Marwin 3078 | lf | hou al | 6.7 | 7.7 | 12.2 | 12.2 | 5.7 |
| Bryant, Kris 3465 | 3b | chi nl | 6.0 | 16.5 | 25.0 | 25.0 | -4.5 |
| Doolittle, Sean 3052 | pi cp | dc nl | 6.0 | 7.0 | 19.0 | 19.0 | 5.0 |
| Hundley, Nick 2497 | ca | sf nl | 4.5 | 5.5 | 16.5 | 27.0 | 3.5 |
| Haniger, MItch 3772 | rf | sea al | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 |
| Lugo, Seth 3729 | pi sp | nym nl | 4.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 3.0 |
| Shields, James 2157 | pi sp | chi al | 2.0 | 5.0 | 50.5 | 101.4 | -1.0 |
| Rojas, Miguel 3642 | ss 3b | fla nl | 2.0 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 0.5 |
| Ruiz, Rio 3906 | 3b | atl nl | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |