Rockies pitcher Chad Bettis is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Bettis pitched a complete-game, two-hit shutout, striking out seven and walking none, in the 6-0 win over the Giants.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2016 season as of Sept. 5:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 22.7 |
| 2 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 20.0 |
| 3 | Fernandez, Jose 3147 | pi sp | fla nl | 18.4 |
| 4 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 18.2 |
| 5 | Lester, Jon 2173 | pi sp | chi nl | 17.1 |
| 6 | Hamels, Cole 2135 | pi sp | tex al | 16.8 |
| 7 | Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | sf nl | 14.4 |
| 8 | Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 14.1 |
| 9 | Syndergaard, Noah 3472 | pi sp | nym nl | 14.0 |
| 10 | Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | chi nl | 13.7 |
American League Player of the Day—Orioles pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez pitched a complete game, allowing three runs, two hits, one walk and striking out six, in the 7-3 win over the Rays.
American League Batter of the Day—Eric Hosmer of the Royals hit a three-run homer and went 2-for-3, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 11-5 win over the Twins.
National League Batter of the Day—Chris Coghlan of the Cubs hit the go-ahead, seventh-inning pinch-hit single and went 2-for-2, scoring once and driving in three runs, in the 7-2 win over the Brewers.
Notable—Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander has the most season Box-Toppers points among the 15 who earned Player of the Game honors Monday.
Verlander (7IP 8H 2R BB 11K ND in the 5-3, 11-inning win over the White Sox) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 11.0 for the season. He ranks 27th among all players and 10th among AL pitchers.
Verander also now has 135.6 career Box-Toppers points, 29th-most since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995. He trails 28th-ranked player, Cubs pitcher Jon Lester (138.2).
Also notable—For the sixth time this season, a pitcher has earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors for batting and Adam Wainwright of the Cardinals, who did it Monday, has now done it twice in 2016.
Wainwright (2B 2-3 R 3BI in the 12-6 win over the Pirates) was also Player of the Game for batting May 2. It is the fourth time in his career Wainwright has earned Player of the Game honors for batting. He also did it July 24, 2012 and Sept. 18, 2013.
Wainwright also picked up the win in the game (5IP 7H 4R BB 5K W). His Box-Toppers game score for pitching was −6.0. His Box-Toppers game score for batting was +3.0, best of all Cardinals players Monday.
Wainwright earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being Player of the Game, giving him 111.0 career points. He rises to 53rd place among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began, passing Tom Glavine (110.6) on the “all-time” list and now trails 52nd-ranked player Adrian Beltre of the Rangers (111.3). Wainwright has 9.2 Box-Toppers points on the season, 20th among NL pitchers.
Debut—Trea Turner of the Nationals made his Box-Toppers debut Monday with his first career Player of the Game honor.
Turner (HR 2B 3-4 R 3BI in the 6-4 win over the Braves) made his Major League debut Aug. 21, 2015, and was playing in his 75th career game. He is the 3,730th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Scoring—Bettis earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Jimenez earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Hosmer and Coghlan 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.
Top player from each game
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score
| 9/5 | Score | Game | Player of Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 14.0 | COL 6, SF 0 | Chad Bettis (W,12-7) | - | - | - | - | 9.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | |
| 12.0 | SD 2, BOS 1 | Edwin Jackson (W,4-5) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 11 | ||
| 8.1 | LAD 10, ARI 2 | Kenta Maeda (W,14-8) | - | - | - | - | 6.1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | ||
| AL | 6.0 | BAL 7, TB 3 | Ubaldo Jimenez (W,6-11) | - | - | - | - | 9.0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 6 | |
| BAT | 5.0 | KC 11, MIN 5 | Eric Hosmer, 1B | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 5.0 | `DET 5, CHW 3 (11) | Justin Verlander | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 11 | ||
| 4.0 | SEA 14, TEX 6 | Franklin Gutierrez, RF | 4 | 1 | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| BAT | 4.0 | CHC 7, MIL 2 | Chris Coghlan, PH-RF | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | NYY 5, TOR 3 | Jacoby Ellsbury, CF | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | WSH 6, ATL 4 | Trea Turner, 2B | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | NYM 5, CIN 0 | Matt Reynolds, SS | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | STL 12, PIT 6 | Adam Wainwright, P | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | LAA 10, OAK 7 | Andrew Bailey (S,2) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | PHI 6, MIA 2 | Peter Bourjos, RF | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | HOU 6, CLE 2 | Alex Bregman, 3B | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| `Denotes that the 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 Players of the Game. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (16). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (15-16), the period 2011-2016 (11-16) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2016 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2015 total (+/-).| Player of Game | Pos | Team | 16 | 15-16 | 11-16 | Career | +/- |
| Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | det al | 11.0 | 17.4 | 80.6 | 135.6 | 4.6 |
| Wainwright, Adam 2150 | pi sp | stl nl | 9.2 | 12.2 | 60.3 | 111.0 | 6.2 |
| Maeda, Kenta 3609 | pi sp | lad nl | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| Hosmer, Eric 2886 | 1b | kc al | 7.5 | 16.5 | 30.0 | 30.0 | -1.5 |
| Bettis, Chad 3481 | pi sp | col nl | 5.7 | 11.1 | 11.1 | 11.1 | 0.3 |
| Gutierrez, Franklin 2242 | rf | sea al | 3.5 | 4.5 | 8.5 | 23.5 | 2.5 |
| Jackson, Edwin 1812 | pi sp | sd nl | 3.0 | 3.0 | 22.0 | 43.8 | 3.0 |
| Jimenez, Ubaldo 2349 | pi sp | bal al | 2.7 | 11.4 | 39.6 | 77.5 | -6.0 |
| Coghlan, Chris 2610 | 3b rf ph | chi nl | 2.5 | 3.5 | 10.0 | 16.5 | 1.5 |
| Bregman, Alex 3721 | 3b | hou al | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Reynolds, Matt 3650 | ss ph | nym nl | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Ellsbury, Jacoby 2365 | cf | nyy al | 1.0 | 4.0 | 23.0 | 30.0 | -2.0 |
| Bourjos, Peter 2790 | rf | phi nl | 1.0 | 2.0 | 12.5 | 13.5 | 0.0 |
| Bailey, Andrew 2549 | pi cp | ana al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 5.0 | 18.0 | 1.0 |
| Turner, Trea 3730 | 2b | dc nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
