Cubs pitcher Yu Darvish is Friday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, rising to second place in season player rankings, first among National League pitchers.
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 Friday, Sept. 4.| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bieber, Shane 4005 | pi sp | cle al | 8.7 |
| 2 | Darvish, Yu 3003 | pi sp | chi nl | 8.7 |
| 3 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 6.7 |
| 4 | Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 6.7 |
| 5 | Bauer, Trevor 3065 | pi sp | cin nl | 6.0 |
| 6 | Giolito, Lucas 3900 | pi sp | chi al | 6.0 |
| 7 | Glasnow, Tyler 3948 | pi sp | tb al | 6.0 |
| 8 | Bundy, Dylan 3655 | pi sp | ana al | 6.0 |
| 9 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 5.7 |
| 10 | Lynn, Lance 2992 | pi sp | tex al | 5.7 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Darvish struck out 11 over seven innings, allowing one run, one hit and no walks, in the 4-1 win over the Cardinals.
Darvish earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 8.7 for the season, rising from third to second place overall. He trails only Indians pitcher Shane Bieber, who also has 8.7 Box-Toppers points, but holds the tiebreaker for the overall lead because he had more 2019 Box-Toppers points—18.1 vs. 10.4. Darvish regains the lead among NL pitchers, passing Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers (6.7), who only took the lead from Darvish Thursday.
American League Player of the Day—Mariners pitcher Yusei Kikuchi struck out seven over six innings, allowing one run, two hits and no walks, in the 6-3 win over the Rangers.
American League Batter of the Day—Ryan Mountcastle of the Orioles homered and went 3-for-3, scoring twice and driving in three runs, in the 6-3, seven-inning win over the Yankees.
This was Mountcastle’s Box-Toppers debut, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Mountcastle made his Major League debut Aug. 21 and was playing in his 13th career game.
National League Batter of the Day—Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Braves hit two home runs and went 2-for-3, scoring three times and driving in three runs, in the 7-1, seven-inning win over the Nationals.
Debut—In addition to Mountcastle, two other players made their Box-Toppers debut Friday with their first career Player of the Game honor:
Nationals pitcher Wander Suero (1IP 0H 0R 0BB 2K W in the 10-9, seven-inning win over the Braves) made his Major League debut May 1, 2018, and was playing in his 131st career game.
White Sox pitcher Codi Heuer (1.1IP 0H 0R 0BB K W in the 7-4 win over the Royals) made his Major League debut July 24 and was playing in his 12th career game.
Notable—Twenty games were played Friday, including nine games which were scheduled as seven-inning pandemic-shortened doubleheader games. Is that a record for most Major League Baseball games played in one day? It feels like it. Yet despite the number of games played, it was kind of a lackluster day in terms of Box-Toppers movement and this may be one of the shortest posts of the season. Eleven of the 20 who earned Player of the Game honors Friday were earning their first points of the 2020 season. Twelve of Friday’s Player of the Game winners have 10.0 or fewer career Box-Toppers points.
Scoring—Darvish earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Kikuchi earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Mountcastle and Acuna each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Friday’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.
Box-Toppers strives for accuracy. See a mistake in a post? A wrong name, wrong team, grammar error, spelling goof, etc.? Thanks for pointing it out! Contact Box-Toppers here. Let's fix it and make it right.
Top player from each game
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score (BTG)| 9/4 | BTG | Game | Player | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MLB | +15.0 | CHC 4, STL 1 | Yu Darvish, (W 7‑1) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 7.0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 11 | |
| AL | +9.0 | SEA 6, TEX 3 | Yusei Kikuchi, (W 2‑2) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 | |
| +7.0 | MIL 7, CLE 1 | Corbin Burnes, (W 2‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 7 | ||
| BAT | +5.0 | BAL 6, NYY 3 (F/7) | Ryan Mountcastle, LF | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| BAT | +5.0 | ATL 7, WSH 1 (F/7) | Ronald Acuña Jr., CF | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| +4.2 | LAA 6, HOU 5 (F/11) | Matt Andriese, (W 2‑2, BS 1) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 2.2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| +4.0 | SD 7, OAK 0 | Zach Davies, (W 6‑2) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 7.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | ||
| +4.0 | MIN 2, DET 0 (F/7) | Randy Dobnak, (W 6‑2) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 5.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | ||
| +4.0 | MIN 3, DET 2 (F/8) | Trevor May, (S 2) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| +3.0 | TB 5, MIA 4 | Yoshi Tsutsugo, DH | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +3.0 | WSH 10, ATL 9 (F/7) | Wander Suero, (W 2‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| +2.2 | `LAD 10, COL 6 | Dustin May | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 5.2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | ||
| +2.1 | CHW 7, KC 4 | Codi Heuer, (W 2‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| +2.0 | ARI 6, SF 5 | Ketel Marte, CF | 5 | 1 | 4 | 2 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +2.0 | TOR 8, BOS 7 (F/7) | Travis Shaw, 3B | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +2.0 | NYY 6, BAL 5 | Miguel Andújar, PR‑DH‑3B | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +2.0 | PHI 5, NYM 3 | Jake Arrieta, (W 3‑4) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 7.0 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | ||
| +2.0 | BOS 3, TOR 2 (F/7) | Josh Taylor, (W 1‑1) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| +1.0 | CIN 4, PIT 2 (F/7) | Nick Castellanos, RF | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +1.0 | PIT 4, CIN 3 (F/7) | Anthony Alford, CF | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ |
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 | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Darvish, Yu 3003 | pi sp | chi nl | 8.7 | 19.1 | 47.9 | 93.1 | ‑1.7 |
| Burnes, Corbin 4029 | pi sp | mil nl | 4.0 | 4.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | +4.0 |
| Dobnak, Randy 4263 | pi sp | min al | 3.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | +2.0 |
| Marte, Ketel 3630 | 2b cf | ari nl | 2.0 | 9.0 | 14.0 | 14.0 | ‑5.0 |
| Davies, Zach 3581 | pi sp | sd nl | 2.0 | 6.0 | 22.7 | 22.7 | ‑2.0 |
| Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | phi nl | 2.0 | 4.0 | 63.2 | 93.9 | +0.0 |
| May, Dustin 4214 | pi sp | lad nl | 2.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | +0.0 |
| May, Trevor 3417 | pi mr cp | min al | 2.0 | 3.0 | 9.0 | 10.0 | +1.0 |
| Tsutsugo, Yoshi 4294 | lf dh | tb al | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | +2.0 |
| Kikuchi, Yusei 4136 | pi sp | sea al | 1.7 | 5.7 | 5.7 | 5.7 | ‑2.3 |
| Acuna, Ronald Jr. 3947 | cf | atl nl | 1.5 | 5.2 | 14.4 | 14.4 | ‑2.2 |
| Mountcastle, Ryan 4325 | lf | bal al | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | +1.5 |
| Castellanos, Nicholas 3349 | rf | cin nl | 1.0 | 6.0 | 28.7 | 30.7 | ‑4.0 |
| Taylor, Josh 4229 | pi mr cp | bos al | 1.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | ‑1.0 |
| Alford, Anthony 4261 | cf | pit nl | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | +0.0 |
| Shaw, Travis 3544 | 3b | tor al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 26.7 | 26.7 | +1.0 |
| Andujar, Miguel 3839 | dh 3b pr | nyy al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 5.5 | 5.5 | +1.0 |
| Andriese, Matt 3505 | pi cp mr | ana al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 11.7 | 11.7 | +1.0 |
| Heuer, Codi 4327 | pi mr | chi al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Suero, Wander 4326 | pi mr | dc nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations