Enrique Hernandez of the Dodgers is Box-Toppers Player of the Day in Thursday’s pair of season opening games.

Hernandez homered and went 4-for-5, scoring twice and driving in five runs, in the 8-1 win over the Giants.

Hernandez earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, the first points awarded in the pandemic-delayed, shortened-to-60-games 2020 season. It is his first career overall Player of the Day honor. He now has 11.5 career Box-Toppers points (2015-2020), including 3.5 in 2019, his best season.

American League Player of the Day—Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole struck out five over five innings, allowing one hit, one run and one walk, in the 4-1, rain-shortened, six-inning win over the Nationals.

Cole earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day. He led all players in 2019 with 32.2 Box-Toppers points, the fourth-highest single-season total since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995.

Cole and Hernandez both had Box-Toppers game scores Thursday of +6.0. But Hernandez won Player of the Day honors because in cases of game score ties between pitchers and batters, the advantage goes to the batter.

Scoring—Hernandez earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Cole earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being top overall Player of the Day, top player in their league for the day or top batter in their league for the day.

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)





    7/23
    BTG
    Game
    Player
    AB
    R
    H
    BI
    
    IP
    H
    R
    ER
    BB
    K
  


    MLB
    +6.0
    LAD 8, SF 1
    Enrique Hernandez 2B
    5
    2
    4
    5
    
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
  

    AL
    +6.0
    NYY 4, WSH 1 (F/6)
    Gerrit Cole (W, 1‑0)
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    
    5.0
    1
    1
    1
    1
    5
  

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 (’20). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’19-20), the period 2015-2020 (’15-20) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2020 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2019 total (+/-).