Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, rising to eighth place in season player rankings.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2018 season through the games of June 30:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 16.4 |
| 2 | Severino, Luis 3567 | pi sp | nyy al | 15.7 |
| 3 | Berrios, Jose 3791 | pi sp | min al | 13.4 |
| 4 | Paxton, James 3280 | pi sp | sea al | 12.0 |
| 5 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | hou al | 12.0 |
| 6 | Morton, Charlie 2503 | pi sp | hou al | 11.8 |
| 7 | Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 11.4 |
| 8 | Corbin, Patrick 3027 | pi sp | ari nl | 11.0 |
| 9 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 10.7 |
| 10 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 10.7 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Sale struck out 11 over seven scoreless innings, allowing one hit and one walk, in the 11-0 win over the Yankees.
Sale earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 10.7 for the season, becoming the 11th player this season to reach 10.0 Box-Toppers points. It is his seventh straight season with 10.0 or more points. In 2017, he led all players with 25.1 Box-Toppers points. Sale ranks sixth among AL pitchers in 2018 Box-Toppers points.
Sale now has 122.2 career Box-Toppers points, 40th-most among players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. He trails 39th-ranked player Gary Sheffield (124.1). (It should be noted that Sheffield would have an estimated 155 Box-Toppers points if his entire career from 1988 were tracked.)
National League Player of the Day—Rockies pitcher German Marquez struck out nine over eight innings, allowing one run, two hits and no walks, in the 3-1 win over the Dodgers.
National League Batter of the Day—Michael Lorenzen of the Reds hit a pinch-hit grand slam in the 12-3 win over the Brewers.
Lorenzen previously earned 6.0 career Box-Toppers points for pitching. However, he entered this game as a pinch hitter and did not pitch Saturday. If he had, he would have been the third pitcher this season to earn Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors for batting. But since he did not pitch Saturday and appeared only as a batter, Box-Toppers is not counting this as a pitcher earning Box-Toppers points for batting.
The other two instances of pitchers earning Player of the Game honors for batting in 2018:
June 15: Brent Suter of the Brewers.
June 23: Anthony DeSclafani of the Reds.
American League Batter of the Day—Ryon Healy of the Mariners homered and went 4-for-4, scoring once and driving in three runs, in the 6-4 win over the Royals.
Debut—Braves pitcher Max Fried made his Box-Toppers debut Saturday with his first career Player of the Game honor.
Fried (6.2IP 4H 0R 3BB 11K W in the 11-4 win over the Cardinals) made his Major League debut Aug. 8, 2017, and was playing in his 15th career game. He is the 4,011th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Scoring—Sale earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Marquez earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Lorenzen and Healy each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Saturday’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)| 6/30 | BTG | Game | Player | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 16.0 | BOS 11, NYY 0 | Chris Sale (W, 8‑4) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 7.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 11 | |
| NL | 13.0 | COL 3, LAD 1 | German Marquez (W, 6‑8) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 8.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 9 | |
| 10.2 | ATL 11, STL 4 | Max Fried (W, 1‑2) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 11 | ||
| 6.2 | OAK 7, CLE 2 | Edwin Jackson (W, 1‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 | ||
| BAT | 5.0 | CIN 12, MIL 3 | Michael Lorenzen PH | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| 5.0 | SD 4, PIT 3 | Joey Lucchesi (W, 4‑3) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 5.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | ||
| BAT | 4.0 | SEA 6, KC 4 | Ryon Healy 1B | 4 | 1 | 4 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| 3.1 | SF 7, ARI 0 | Dereck Rodriguez (W, 3‑1) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | ||
| 3.0 | CHC 14, MIN 9 | Albert Almora CF | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| 3.0 | TB 5, HOU 2 | Wilson Ramos C | 3 | 0 | 2 | 4 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| 3.0 | MIA 5, NYM 2 | Kyle Barraclough (S, 8) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | `LAA 6, BAL 2 | Tyler Skaggs | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 5.0 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | ||
| 2.0 | TEX 13, CHW 4 | Robinson Chirinos C | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| 2.0 | PHI 3, WSH 2 | Victor Arano (W, 1‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 2.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 1.0 | TOR 4, DET 3 | Seunghwan Oh (W, 4‑2) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 1.0 | 1 | 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 Player of the Game winners. 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 the Game | Pos | Team | ’18 | ’17‑18 | ’13‑18 | Career | +/‑ |
| Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 10.7 | 35.8 | 101.5 | 122.2 | -14.4 |
| Skaggs, Tyler 3183 | pi sp | ana al | 6.7 | 9.7 | 22.1 | 22.1 | +3.7 |
| Marquez, German 3788 | pi sp | col nl | 5.7 | 10.4 | 10.4 | 10.4 | +1.0 |
| Healy, Ryon 3685 | 1b | sea al | 4.0 | 13.7 | 16.7 | 16.7 | -5.7 |
| Ramos, Wilson 2904 | ca | tb al | 4.0 | 7.5 | 19.5 | 23.5 | +0.5 |
| Chirinos, Robinson 2924 | ca | tex al | 4.0 | 5.0 | 12.0 | 13.0 | +3.0 |
| Barraclough, Kyle 3583 | pi cp | fla nl | 3.0 | 3.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | +3.0 |
| Lucchesi, Joey 3936 | pi sp | sd nl | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | +3.0 |
| Rodriguez, Dereck 3986 | pi sp | sf nl | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | +3.0 |
| Jackson, Edwin 1812 | pi sp | oak al | 2.0 | 4.0 | 14.0 | 47.8 | 0.0 |
| Lorenzen, Michael 3479 | pi cp mr ph | cin nl | 1.5 | 5.5 | 7.5 | 7.5 | -2.5 |
| Almora, Albert Jr. 3764 | cf | chi nl | 1.0 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 | -2.5 |
| Oh, Seunghwan 3693 | pi cp | tor al | 1.0 | 2.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 0.0 |
| Arano, Victor 3915 | pi mr | phi nl | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 |
| Freid, Max 4011 | pi sp | atl nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | +1.0 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
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.