Reds pitcher Sonny Gray is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

Gray struck out 10 over five scoreless innings, allowing one hit and three walks, in the 2-1 win over the Cardinals.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2019 season through the games of Aug. 15.

	Player	Pos	Team	BTP
1	Verlander, Justin 2112	pi sp	hou al	20.8
2	Cole, Gerrit 3232	pi sp	hou al	18.8
3	Bieber, Shane 4005	pi sp	cle al	16.1
4	Morton, Charlie 2503	pi sp	tb al	15.8
5	Hader, Josh 3881	pi cp	mil nl	15.7
6	Strasburg, Stephen 2736	pi sp	dc nl	15.7
7	Ryu, Hyun-Jin 3139	pi sp	lad nl	15.4
8	Scherzer, Max 2588	pi sp	dc nl	14.4
9	Corbin, Patrick 3027	sp pi	dc nl	13.4
10	Castillo, Luis Miguel 3840	pi sp	cin nl	13.4

What are those numbers after players' names?
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations

Gray earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 10.7 for the season, 20th among all players and 11th among National League pitchers.

Gray becomes the 26th player this season to reach 10 Box-Toppers points. It is his third season with 10 or more points and his first since 2015. In 2014, he had 10.0 points with the Athletics and in 2015, he had 17.8 points with the Athletics, sixth among American League pitchers. In 2018, he had 8.7 Box-Toppers points with the Yankees, 27th among AL pitchers.

American League Player of the Day—Greg Allen of the Indians hit a three-run homer, doubled and went 4-for-5, scoring four times and driving in four runs, in the 19-5 win over the Yankees.

National League Batter of the Day—Pete Alonso of the Mets hit a three-run homer and went 5-for-5, scoring once and driving in six runs, in the 10-8 win over the Braves.

American League Batter of the Day—There is no separate AL Batter of the Day for Thursday because the overall AL Player of the Day is batter Greg Allen.

Debut—Two players made their Box-Toppers debut Thursday, each with their first career Player of the Game honor:

Luis Arraez of the Twins (HR 2B 3-5 2R 3BI in the 13-6 win over the Rangers) made his Major League debut May 18 and was playing in his 55th career game.
Roman Quinn of the Phillies (2B 2-2 2R BI in the 7-5 win over the Cubs) made his Major League debut Sept. 11, 2016, and was playing in his 108th career game.

Scoring—Gray earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Allen earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Alonso 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 (BTG)




  
    8/15
    BTG
    Game
    Player
    AB
    R
    H
    BI
    
    IP
    H
    R
    ER
    BB
    K
  

    MLB
    +11.0
    CIN 2, STL 1
    Sonny Gray (W, 8‑6)
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    
    5.0
    1
    0
    0
    3
    10
  

    BAT
    +7.0
    NYM 10, ATL 8
    Pete Alonso 1B
    5
    1
    5
    6
    
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
  

    AL
    +7.0
    CLE 19, NYY 5
    Greg Allen CF
    5
    4
    4
    4
    
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
  

    
    +7.0
    SF 7, ARI 0
    Dereck Rodriguez (W, 5‑6)
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    
    7.0
    3
    0
    0
    1
    4
  

    
    +5.0
    LAA 8, CHW 7
    Mike Trout CF
    4
    4
    4
    1
    
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
  

    
    +4.0
    MIA 13, LAD 7
    Brian Anderson RF
    4
    2
    3
    3
    
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
  

    
    +4.0
    OAK 7, HOU 6
    Matt Chapman 3B
    4
    3
    3
    2
    
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
  

    
    +3.0
    MIN 13, TEX 6
    Luis Arraez 2B
    5
    2
    3
    3
    
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
  

    
    +3.0
    PHI 7, CHC 5
    Roman Quinn CF
    2
    2
    2
    1
    
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
  

    
    +1.0
    SEA 7, DET 2
    Kyle Seager 3B
    5
    1
    2
    3
    
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
  
MLB—Overall Box-Toppers Player of the Day, worth 2.0 total Box-Toppers points.

  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 2014-2019 (’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	+/‑
Gray, Sonny 3259	pi sp	cin nl	10.7	19.4	56.6	60.6	+2.0
Trout, Mike 2949	cf	ana al	8.7	16.7	54.7	70.7	+0.7
Chapman, Matt 3849	3b	oak al	6.5	11.0	13.5	13.5	+2.0
Alonso, Pete 4118	1b	nym nl	6.0	6.0	6.0	6.0	+6.0
Seager, Kyle 3031	3b	sea al	4.2	8.2	32.7	38.7	+0.2
Allen, Greg 4036	lf	cle al	2.7	4.2	4.2	4.2	+1.2
Rodriguez, Dereck 3986	pi sp	sf nl	2.0	9.0	9.0	9.0	-5.0
Anderson, Brian W. 3954	3b rf	fla nl	2.0	8.5	8.5	8.5	-4.5
Arraez, Luis 4219	2b	min al	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	+1.0
Quinn, Roman 4220	cf	phi nl	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	+1.0