Blue Jays pitcher Steven Matz is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Matz struck out nine over 6 1/3 innings, allowing one run, two hits and one walk, in the 6-2 win over the Rangers.
Matz earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, his first points of the season, and now ranks fifth in season player rankings.
National League Player of the Day—Dodgers pitcher Dustin May struck out eight over six scoreless innings, allowing two hits and two walks, in the 10-3 win over the Athletics.
May earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day, his first points of the season, and now ranks ninth in season player rankings.
American League Batter of the Day—J.D. Martinez of the Red Sox hit a three-run homer and went 2-for-3, scoring twice and driving in three runs, in the 11-2 win over the Rays.
National League Batter of the Day—Darin Ruf of the Giants homered and went 1-for-1, scoring once and driving in one run, in the 3-2 win over the Padres.
Streak—Two players extended to 11 seasons their consecutive streak of earning Box-Toppers points after both earned their first Player of the Game honor of 2021 Monday:
Royals pitcher Danny Duffy (6IP 2H 0R 3BB 5K W in the 3-0 win over the Indians) earned his first Box-Toppers point in 2011 with the Royals and has 47.4 career points, 24th among active AL pitchers. His best season was 2016 with the Royals when he had 10.7 Box-Toppers points, 18th among AL pitchers. He had 2.0 points in 2020 with the Royals.
Mike Trout of the Angels (HR 2-3 R BI in the 7-6 win over the Astros) earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2011 with the Angels and now has 76.2 career points, fourth among active AL batters. His best season was 2016 with the Angels when he had 12.5 Box-Toppers points, second among AL batters. He’s ranked among the top 10 AL batters in season Box-Toppers points seven times, but has never led. However, Trout has the most Box-Toppers points among AL batters from 2016-2021 (39.7), ahead of second-place J.D. Martinez of the Red Sox (33.5). Trout had 4.5 Box-Toppers points in 2020, fifth among AL batters.
Debut—Reds pitcher Jose De Leon made his Box-Toppers debut Monday with his first career Player of the Game honor.
De Leon (5IP 3H 2R 2BB 9K ND in the 5-3 win over the Pirates) made his Major League debut Sept. 4, 2016, and was playing in his 14th career game.
Scoring—Matz earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and May earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Martinez and Ruf each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Monday’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)| 4/5 | BTG | Game | Player | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MLB | +10.1 | TOR 6, TEX 2 | Steven Matz, (W 1‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | |
| NL | +10.0 | LAD 10, OAK 3 | Dustin May, (W 1‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | |
| +9.0 | NYY 7, BAL 0 | Jordan Montgomery, (W 1‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | ||
| +9.0 | CHW 6, SEA 0 | Carlos Rodón, (W 1‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 5.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 9 | ||
| +6.0 | KC 3, CLE 0 | Danny Duffy, (W 1‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | ||
| +6.0 | MIN 15, DET 6 | Matt Shoemaker, (W 1‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | ||
| +5.0 | `CIN 5, PIT 3 | Jose De León | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 5.0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 9 | ||
| BAT | +4.0 | BOS 11, TB 2 | J.D. Martinez, DH | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| +4.0 | CHC 5, MIL 3 | Trevor Williams, (W 1‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | ||
| BAT | +2.0 | SF 3, SD 2 | Darin Ruf, LF | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| +2.0 | STL 4, MIA 1 | Daniel Ponce de Leon, (W 1‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 5.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||
| +1.0 | LAA 7, HOU 6 | Mike Trout, CF | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +1.0 | PHI 5, NYM 3 | Brad Miller, PH | 1 | 1 | 1 | 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 (’21). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’20-21), the period 2016-2021 (’16-21) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2021 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2020 total (+/-).| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’21 | ’20‑21 | ’16‑21 | Career | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matz, Steven 3516 | pi sp | tor al | 2.0 | 2.0 | 30.8 | 34.3 | +2.0 |
| May, Dustin 4214 | pi sp | lad nl | 1.7 | 3.7 | 5.7 | 5.7 | ‑0.3 |
| Ruf, Darin 3575 | lf dh | sf nl | 1.5 | 5.5 | 6.5 | 8.0 | ‑2.5 |
| Martinez, J.D. 2922 | dh rf | bos al | 1.5 | 1.5 | 33.5 | 45.2 | +1.5 |
| Trout, Mike 2949 | cf | ana al | 1.0 | 5.5 | 39.7 | 76.2 | ‑3.5 |
| Ponce de Leon, Daniel 4037 | pi sp | stl nl | 1.0 | 4.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | ‑2.0 |
| Duffy, Danny 2915 | pi sp | kc al | 1.0 | 3.0 | 28.4 | 47.4 | ‑1.0 |
| Miller, Brad 3227 | dh 3b ss ph | phi nl | 1.0 | 2.0 | 5.0 | 9.0 | +0.0 |
| Montgomery, Jordan 3814 | pi sp | nyy al | 1.0 | 2.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | +0.0 |
| Shoemaker, Matt 3290 | pi sp | min al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 17.4 | 35.8 | +1.0 |
| Williams, Trevor 3792 | pi sp | chi nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 16.0 | 16.0 | +1.0 |
| Rodon, Carlos 3494 | pi sp | chi al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 18.0 | 26.1 | +1.0 |
| De Leon, Jose 4370 | pi sp | cin nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | +1.0 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Chart is sortable. Click a column header to re-sort the chart by the values in that column. Refresh page to restore chart to default view.