Pirates pitcher Steven Brault is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Brault pitched a complete game two-hitter, allowing one run, two walks and striking out eight, in the 5-1 win over the Cardinals.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 in Box-Toppers season player rankings for 2020. Players are ranked by Box-Toppers points (BTP) earned this season through Thursday, Sept. 17.| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bieber, Shane 4005 | pi sp | cle al | 9.7 |
| 2 | Lynn, Lance 2992 | pi sp | tex al | 9.1 |
| 3 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 8.7 |
| 4 | Darvish, Yu 3003 | pi sp | chi nl | 8.7 |
| 5 | Bauer, Trevor 3065 | pi sp | cin nl | 8.0 |
| 6 | Lamet, Dinelson 3808 | pi sp | sd nl | 8.0 |
| 7 | Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 7.7 |
| 8 | Maeda, Kenta 3609 | pi sp | min al | 7.4 |
| 9 | Giolito, Lucas 3900 | pi sp | chi al | 7.0 |
| 10 | Bundy, Dylan 3655 | pi sp | ana al | 7.0 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Brault earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 3.0 for the season, 63rd among all players and 23rd among National League pitchers.
American League Player of the Day—Astros pitcher Framber Valdez struck out 11 over 6 1/3 innings, allowing one run, four hits and one walk, in the 2-1 win over the Rangers.
American League Batter of the Day—Jose Ramirez of the Indians hit two homers, doubled and went 4-for-5, scoring three times and driving in four runs, in the 10-3 win over the Tigers.
Ramirez had a Box-Toppers game score of +6.0, just beating out teammate, pitcher Shane Bieber, as Player of the Game. Bieber (7.2IP 4H 3R 2BB 10K W) had a Box-Toppers game score of +5.2. Bieber leads all players in 2020 Box-Toppers points with 9.7, but hasn’t earned Player of the Game honors since Sept. 6.
National League Batter of the Day—Brandon Nimmo of the Mets homered, tripled and went 3-for-4, scoring once and driving in three runs, in the 10-6 win over the Phillies.
Notable—Rays pitcher Blake Snell has the most 2020 Box-Toppers points among the 12 who earned Player of the Game honors Thursday.
Snell (5.1IP 2H R BB 4K ND in the 3-1, seven-inning win over the Orioles) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 3.7 for the season, 42nd among all players and 15th among AL pitchers. Snell led all players in Box-Toppers points in 2018.
Streak—Giancarlo Stanton of the Yankees has now earned Box-Toppers points in 11 straight seasons after earning his first Player of the Game honor of 2020 Thursday.
Stanton (HR 2B 4-5 R 2BI in the 10-7 win over the Blue Jays) earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2010 with the Marlins and now has 61.9 career points, ninth among active AL batters. His best season was 2017 with the Marlins when he had 14.2 points, second among NL batters. In 2019, he had 1.0 point with the Yankees, his lowest single-season total.
Debut—Taylor Ward of the Angels made his Box-Toppers debut Thursday with his first career Player of the Game honor.
Ward (2-2B 3-4 2R 0BI in the 7-3 win over the Diamondbacks) made his Major League debut Aug. 14, 2018, and was playing in his 85th career game.
Scoring—Brault earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Valdez earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Ramirez and Nimmo 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)| 9/17 | BTG | Game | Player | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MLB | +11.0 | PIT 5, STL 1 | Steven Brault, (W 1‑3) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 9.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | |
| AL | +10.1 | HOU 2, TEX 1 | Framber Valdez, (W 4‑3) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 11 | |
| +10.0 | BOS 5, MIA 3 | Nathan Eovaldi, (W 3‑2) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 5.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | ||
| BAT | +6.0 | CLE 10, DET 3 | Jose Ramírez, 3B | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| +5.0 | `SF 6, SEA 4 | Wandy Peralta | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | ||
| +4.1 | `TB 3, BAL 1 (F/7) | Blake Snell | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 5.1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||
| +4.0 | TB 10, BAL 6 (F/7) | Joey Wendle, 3B | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| BAT | +3.0 | NYM 10, PHI 6 | Brandon Nimmo, CF | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| +2.2 | CHW 4, MIN 3 | Codi Heuer, (W 3‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 1.2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| +2.0 | NYY 10, TOR 7 | Giancarlo Stanton, DH | 5 | 1 | 4 | 2 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +2.0 | LAD 9, COL 3 | Corey Seager, SS | 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +1.0 | LAA 7, ARI 3 | Taylor Ward, RF | 4 | 2 | 3 | 0 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ |
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 (+/-).| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’20 | ’19‑20 | ’15‑20 | Career | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Snell, Blake 3688 | pi sp | tb al | 3.7 | 13.7 | 49.9 | 49.9 | ‑6.3 |
| Brault, Steven 3911 | pi sp mr | pit nl | 3.0 | 6.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | +0.0 |
| Eovaldi, Nathan 2928 | pi sp | bos al | 3.0 | 4.0 | 21.4 | 38.5 | +2.0 |
| Wendle, Joey 3756 | 3b 2b ph | tb al | 3.0 | 3.0 | 6.5 | 6.5 | +3.0 |
| Valdez, Framber 4048 | pi mr sp | hou al | 2.7 | 6.4 | 8.4 | 8.4 | ‑1.0 |
| Ramirez, Jose 3436 | dh 3b | cle al | 2.5 | 4.0 | 24.0 | 25.0 | +1.0 |
| Seager, Corey 3587 | ss | lad nl | 2.0 | 3.0 | 16.5 | 16.5 | +1.0 |
| Peralta, Wandy 3782 | pi mr | sf nl | 2.0 | 2.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | +2.0 |
| Heuer, Codi 4327 | pi mr | chi al | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | +2.0 |
| Nimmo, Brandon 3895 | cf | nym nl | 1.5 | 2.5 | 8.9 | 8.9 | +0.5 |
| Stanton, Giancarlo 2737 | dh lf | nyy al | 1.0 | 2.0 | 34.7 | 61.9 | +0.0 |
| Ward, Taylor 4345 | rf | ana al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | +1.0 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations