Twins pitcher Jose Berrios is Box-Toppers Player of the Day in Thursday’s Opening Day games.
Berrios struck out 10 over 7 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing two hits and one walk, in the 2-0 win over the Indians.
Berrios earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, his first points of the season and takes the early lead in Box-Toppers season player rankings. Berrios ranked ninth among all players in 2018 with 17.8 Box-Toppers points, seventh among American League pitchers.
National League Player of the Day—Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom struck out 10 over six scoreless innings, allowing five hits and one walk-in the 2-0 win over the Nationals.
deGrom earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day. In 2018, he earned 16.8 Box-Toppers points, third among NL pitchers.
American League Batter of the Day—Luke Voit of the Yankees hit a three-run home run and went 1-for-1, scoring once and driving in four runs, in the 7-2 win over the Orioles.
National League Batter of the Day—Javier Baez of the Cubs hit two home runs, including a three-run homer, in the 12-4 win over the Rangers. Baez went 2-for-5, scoring twice and driving in four runs.
Streak—Astros pitcher Justin Verlander has now earned Box-Toppers points in 14 straight seasons after earning Player of the Game honors Thursday.
Verlander (7IP 3H R BB 9K W in the 5-1 win over the Rays) earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2006 with the Tigers and now has 179.1 career Box-Toppers points, 10th among all players since 1995 when Box-Toppers tracking began. He trails ninth-ranked player, Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer (181.8), who also pitched Thursday, but did not earn Box-Toppers points. Verlander’s best seasons were 2011 (24.4 points) and 2012 (24.8), both with the Tigers, when he led all AL pitchers. He had 24.1 points in 2018, third among all players. Verlander ranks sixth among active players in career Box-Toppers points.
Notable—Three Box-Toppers points leaders pitched Thursday but did not earn Player of the Game honors. All were on teams that lost Thursday:
Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer actually had the highest Box-Toppers game score (+10.2) of any player in his team’s 2-0 loss to the Mets (7.2IP 2H 2R 3BB 12K L). But Player of the Game (and NL Player of the Day) was Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom (with a game score of +10.0). Scherzer finished second to deGrom in 2018 NL Cy Young Award voting, but had the most Box-Toppers points of any NL player in 2018 (25.1). deGrom ranked third among NL players (16.8).
Rays pitcher Blake Snell, who led all players in 2018 with 27.2 Box-Toppers points, had a Box-Toppers game score of -9.0 in the 5-1 loss to the Astros (6IP 6H 5R 2BB 3K L).
Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale, who led all players in 2017 with 25.1 Box-Toppers points and ranked sixth in 2018 (20.1), had a Box-Toppers game score of -15.0 in the 12-4 loss to the Mariners (3IP 6H 7R 2BB 4K L).
Scoring—Berrios earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and deGrom earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Voit and Baez each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s 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 (BTG)| 3/28 | BTG | Game | Player | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | +14.2 | MIN 2, CLE 0 | Jose Berrios (W, 1‑0) | - | - | - | - | 7.2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | |
| +10.0 | HOU 5, TB 1 | Justin Verlander (W, 1‑0) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | ||
| NL | +10.0 | NYM 2, WSH 0 | Jacob deGrom (W, 1‑0) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | |
| +10.0 | `DET 2, TOR 0 (F/10) | Jordan Zimmermann | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | ||
| +9.0 | KC 5, CHW 3 | Brad Keller (W, 1‑0) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | ||
| +8.0 | LAD 12, ARI 5 | Hyun-Jin Ryu (W, 1‑0) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | ||
| +7.0 | COL 6, MIA 3 | Kyle Freeland (W, 1‑0) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||
| +6.2 | `CIN 5, PIT 3 | Luis Castillo | - | - | - | - | 5.2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 8 | ||
| +6.0 | MIL 5, STL 4 | Josh Hader (S, 1) | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | ||
| BAT | +5.0 | NYY 7, BAL 2 | Luke Voit DH | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| +5.0 | PHI 10, ATL 4 | Aaron Nola (W, 1‑0) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 8 | ||
| +4.0 | SEA 12, BOS 4 | Domingo Santana LF | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| +4.0 | SD 2, SF 0 | Eric Lauer (W, 1‑0) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | ||
| +4.0 | OAK 4, LAA 0 | Mike Fiers (W, 1‑1) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | ||
| BAT | +3.0 | CHC 12, TEX 4 | Javier Baez SS | 5 | 2 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
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 (’19). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’18-19), the period 2013-2018 (’14-19) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2019 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2018 total (+/-).| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’19 | ’18‑19 | ’14‑19 | Career | +/‑ |
| Berrios, Jose 3791 | pi sp | min al | 2.0 | 19.8 | 26.8 | 28.8 | -15.8 |
| deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 1.7 | 18.5 | 77.6 | 79.3 | -15.1 |
| Baez, Javier 3395 | ss 2b 3b | chi nl | 1.5 | 11.5 | 19.7 | 21.2 | -8.5 |
| Voit, Luke 4053 | dh 1b | nyy al | 1.5 | 5.5 | 4.0 | 5.5 | -2.5 |
| Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | hou al | 1.0 | 25.1 | 63.9 | 179.1 | -23.1 |
| Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 1.0 | 22.1 | 45.6 | 46.6 | -20.1 |
| Freeland, Kyle 3763 | pi sp | col nl | 1.0 | 13.4 | 18.4 | 19.4 | -11.4 |
| Hader, Josh 3881 | pi cp mr | mil nl | 1.0 | 12.7 | 14.7 | 15.7 | -10.7 |
| Fiers, Mike 3029 | pi sp | oak al | 1.0 | 11.7 | 35.5 | 44.2 | -9.7 |
| Ryu, Hyun-Jin 3139 | pi sp | lad nl | 1.0 | 11.1 | 26.5 | 37.2 | -9.1 |
| Castillo, Luis Miguel 3840 | pi sp | cin nl | 1.0 | 9.0 | 16.4 | 17.4 | -7.0 |
| Lauer, Eric 4017 | pi sp | sd nl | 1.0 | 7.7 | 6.7 | 7.7 | -5.7 |
| Zimmermann, Jordan 2612 | pi sp | det al | 1.0 | 7.0 | 33.0 | 69.4 | -5.0 |
| Keller, Brad 4008 | pi sp | kc al | 1.0 | 5.0 | 4.0 | 5.0 | -3.0 |
| Santana, Domingo 3507 | lf | sea al | 1.0 | 2.0 | 8.5 | 9.5 | 0.0 |
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