Twins pitcher Jose Berrios is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Berrios pitched a complete-game, three-hit shutout, striking out six and allowing one walk, in the 7-0 win over the Orioles
Berrios had a Box-Toppers game score Sunday of +11.0, the same as Astros pitcher Gerrit Cole, Player of the Game in the 8-2 win over the Rangers (7IP 2H R 3BB 11K W). But Berrios earned overall Player of the Day honors over Cole because he had more innings pitched (nine vs. seven).
Berrios earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, one of four players to earn that honor this season (on the fourth day of the season), and currently ranks fourth (based on tiebreakers) in Box-Toppers season player rankings.
National League Player of the Day—Nationals pitcher Gio Gonzalez struck out seven over six innings, allowing one run, five hits and one walk, in the 6-5 win over the Reds.
Gonzalez has now earned Box-Toppers points for 10 consecutive seasons. He earned his first points in 2009 with the Athletics and now has 97.9 career points, 84th among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. He ranks 54th among all pitchers since 1995 and ninth among active NL pitchers. His best season was 2012 with the Nationals when he had 17.7 Box-Toppers points, sixth among all players. Gonzalez had 9.7 points in 2017, 20th among NL pitchers.
American League Batter of the Day—Justin Smoak of the Blue Jays hit two home runs, including a go-ahead, eighth-inning grand slam, in the 7-4 win over the Yankees. Smoak went 3-for-4, scoring twice and driving in six runs.
National League Batter of the Day—Paul DeJong of the Cardinals homered twice and went 2-for-3, in the 5-1 win over the Mets.
Debut—Chad Wallach of the Marlins made his Box-Toppers debut Sunday with his first career Player of the Game honor.
Wallach (2B 2-3 R BI in the 6-0 win over the Cubs) made his Major League debut Aug. 27, 2017, and was playing in his ninth career game. He is the 3,928th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Comment—One of the values of the Box-Toppers metric is to remove emotion and storytelling from determining Player of the Game. It can be a biasing factor which can alter reality.
For example, in the Angels’ 7-4 win Sunday over the Athletics, it would be very easy to proclaim Shohei Ohtani, the touted rookie two-way player from Japan, as Player of the Game, simply based on the fact that he had a good outing in his first Major League pitching start (6IP 3H 3R BB 6K W). And journalistically, yes, that’s the lead on the game story. But by Box-Toppers standards, Ohtani, while he came close, did not earn Player of the Game. That went to shortstop Andrelton Simmons (3-4 R 2BI). Both Simmons and Ohtani had Box-Toppers game scores of +2.0, but Simmons earned Player of the Game because in cases of game score ties, the batter gets the advantage.
True, it would have been a better story to say Ohtani was Player of the Game. But in this case, Simmons earns the Box-Toppers point and Ohtani still awaits his Box-Toppers debut to earn his first point.
Scoring—Berrios earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Gonzalez earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Smoak and DeJong each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Sunday’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 (BTG)| 4/1 | Score | Game | Player | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 11.0 | MIN 7, BAL 0 | Jose Berrios (W, 1‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 9.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | |
| 11.0 | HOU 8, TEX 2 | Gerrit Cole (W, 1‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 7.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 11 | ||
| BAT | 7.0 | TOR 7, NYY 4 | Justin Smoak (1B) | 4 | 2 | 3 | 6 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| NL | 5.0 | WSH 6, CIN 5 | Gio Gonzalez (W, 1‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | |
| 4.0 | PIT 1, DET 0 | Felipe Rivero (S, 1) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 4.0 | SEA 5, CLE 4 | Edwin Diaz (S, 2) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| BAT | 3.0 | STL 5, NYM 1 | Paul DeJong (SS) | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| 3.0 | LAD 9, SF 0 | Rich Hill (W, 1‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | ||
| 2.2 | BOS 2, TB 1 | Hector Velazquez (W, 1‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 5.2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||
| 2.0 | PIT 8, DET 6 | Josh Harrison (2B) | 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| 2.0 | LAA 7, OAK 4 | Andrelton Simmons (SS) | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| 1.0 | MIA 6, CHC 0 | Chad Wallach (C) | 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 (’18). also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’17-18), the period 2013-2018 (’13-18) and each players’ career point total. also shown is how their 2018 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2017 total (+/-).| Player of Game | Pos | Team | ’18 | ’17‑18 | ’13‑18 | Career | +/‑ |
| Berrios, Jose 3791 | pi sp | min al | 2.0 | 11.0 | 11.0 | 11.0 | -7.0 |
| Gonzalez, Gio 2626 | pi sp | dc nl | 1.7 | 11.4 | 50.8 | 97.9 | -8.0 |
| Smoak, Justin 2731 | 1b | tor al | 1.5 | 8.0 | 19.2 | 30.9 | -5.0 |
| Dejong, Paul 3827 | ss | stl nl | 1.5 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | -3.0 |
| Hill, Rich 2215 | pi sp | lad nl | 1.0 | 13.7 | 32.1 | 51.8 | -11.7 |
| Diaz, Edwin 3690 | pi cp | sea al | 1.0 | 10.0 | 17.0 | 17.0 | -8.0 |
| Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | hou al | 1.0 | 8.0 | 43.9 | 43.9 | -6.0 |
| Rivero, Felipe 3579 | pi cp | pit nl | 1.0 | 5.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | -3.0 |
| Simmons, Andrelton 3165 | ss | ana al | 1.0 | 3.5 | 10.5 | 10.5 | -1.5 |
| Harrison, Josh 2947 | 2b 3b | pit nl | 1.0 | 2.0 | 8.5 | 10.0 | 0.0 |
| Velazquez, Hector 3853 | pi cp | bos al | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 |
| Wallach, Chad 3928 | ca | fla nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
Box-Toppers
Tracking who most helps their teams win the most games, based on box score stats. A method to measure & compare baseball's top players.
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. Players earn Box-Toppers points 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.