Kershaw leads player rankings for second straight week. Santana rises to lead AL players. Harper, Morrison lead league batters.
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Washington Nationals remain atop Box-Toppers team rankings for 2nd week
Nationals top teams in weekly team rankings report. Nationals and Diamondbacks were the hottest teams of the past week. Yankees rise to lead AL teams in rankings.
Read MoreDbacks' Taijuan Walker tops players for Thursday, April 27; Yankees' Tanaka tops AL players
Diamondbacks pitcher Taijuan Walker is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Walker struck out 11 over eight innings, allowing two runs on four hits, in the 6-2 win over the Padres.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of April 27:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 6.0 |
| 2 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 5.7 |
| 3 | Vargas, Jason 2055 | pi sp | kc al | 5.0 |
| 4 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 4.7 |
| 5 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 4.0 |
| 6 | Paxton, James 3280 | pi sp | sea al | 4.0 |
| 7 | Harper, Bryce 3011 | rf | dc nl | 4.0 |
| 8 | Holland, Greg 2906 | pi cp | col nl | 4.0 |
| 9 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 3.7 |
| 10 | Chacin, Jhoulys 2711 | pi mr sp | sd nl | 3.7 |
Walker earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 3.0 for the season, most among the 11 Thursday who earned Player of the Game honors. Walker rises to 17th place in Box-Toppers player rankings.
American League Player of the Day—Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka pitched a complete-game, three-hit, shutout in the 3-0 win over the Red Sox. Tanaka struck out three and walked none.
National League Batter of the Day—Randal Grichuk of the Cardinals hit a two-run, ninth-inning homer to tie the game, in the 8-4, 11-inning win over the Blue Jays. Grichuk went 2-for-2, scoring twice and driving in three runs.
American League Batter of the Day—Yan Gomes of the Indians doubled and went 1-for-1, scoring a run, in the 4-3 win over the Astros.
Streaks—Two players extended their streaks of 10 or more consecutive seasons earning Box-Toppers points after both earned Player of the Game honors Thursday:
- Kurt Suzuki of the Braves (HR 1-3 2R 3BI in the 7-5 win over the Mets) has now earned Box-Toppers points in 11 straight seasons. He earned his first points in 2007 with the Athletics and has 33.0 career points, fourth among active NL catchers. His best season was 2009 with the Athletics when he had 6.0 Box-Toppers points, fourth among AL catchers. In 2016, he had 1.5 points with the Twins.
- Angels pitcher Ricky Nolasco (5.2IP 3H R 2BB 4K W in the 2-1 win over the Athletics) has now earned Box-Toppers points in 10 straight seasons. He earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2006 with the Marlins, but his 10-year streak began in 2008 with the Marlins (he earned no points in 2007). Nolasco has 88.2 career points, 11th among active AL pitchers. His best seasons were 2008 and 2009, both the the Marlins—he earned 16.7 points each season. In 2008, he ranked fourth among NL pitchers and in 2009, he ranked third among NL pitchers. In 2016, he had 11.4 points with the Twins and the Angels, 14th among AL pitchers.
Scoring—Walker earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Tanaka earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Grichuk and Gomes 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.
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| 4/27 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 11.0 | ARI 6, SD 2 | Taijuan Walker (W,3-1) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 11 | |
| AL | 9.0 | NYY 3, BOS 0 | Masahiro Tanaka (W,3-1) | - | - | - | - | 9.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| BAT | 5.0 | STL 8, TOR 4 (F/11) | Randal Grichuk, RF | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.2 | `SEA 2, DET 1 | Hisashi Iwakuma | - | - | - | - | 5.2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | ||
| 3.0 | WSH 16, COL 5 | Daniel Murphy, 2B | 6 | 3 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | ATL 7, NYM 5 | Kurt Suzuki, C | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | LAD 5, SF 1 (F/10) | Kenley Jansen (W,1-0) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 3.0 | `PHI 3, MIA 2 | Joaquin Benoit (H,6) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | STL 6, TOR 4 | Trevor Rosenthal (S,2) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.2 | LAA 2, OAK 1 | Ricky Nolasco (W,2-2) | - | - | - | - | 5.2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | ||
| BAT | 1.0 | CLE 4, HOU 3 | Yan Gomes, C | 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 Players of the Game. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (’17). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’16-17), the period 2012-2017 (’12-17) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2017 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2016 total (+/-).| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’17 | ’16-17 | ’12-17 | Career | +/- |
| Walker, Taijuan 3453 | pi sp | ari nl | 3.0 | 10.7 | 24.4 | 24.4 | -4.7 |
| Murphy, Daniel 2589 | 2b | dc nl | 2.0 | 9.5 | 30.5 | 34.5 | -5.5 |
| Tanaka, Masahiro 3305 | pi sp | nyy al | 1.7 | 15.8 | 36.5 | 36.5 | -12.4 |
| Grichuk, Randal 3474 | rf | stl nl | 1.5 | 2.5 | 12.0 | 12.0 | 0.5 |
| Gomes, Yan 3177 | ca | cle al | 1.5 | 2.5 | 10.7 | 10.7 | 0.5 |
| Nolasco, Ricky 2125 | pi sp | ana al | 1.0 | 12.4 | 29.1 | 88.2 | -10.4 |
| Iwakuma, Hisashi 3048 | pi sp | sea al | 1.0 | 7.0 | 55.2 | 55.2 | -5.0 |
| Jansen, Kenley 2871 | pi cp mr | lad nl | 1.0 | 7.0 | 32.7 | 37.4 | -5.0 |
| Rosenthal, Trevor 3124 | pi cp | stl nl | 1.0 | 5.0 | 23.0 | 23.0 | -3.0 |
| Suzuki, Kurt 2344 | ca | atl nl | 1.0 | 2.5 | 13.5 | 33.0 | -0.5 |
| Benoit, Joaquin 1663 | pi mr | phi nl | 1.0 | 2.0 | 9.0 | 30.5 | 0.0 |
Mariners' James Paxton tops players for Wednesday, April 26, rises to sixth in Box-Toppers player rankings
Mariners pitcher James Paxton is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to sixth place in season player rankings.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of April 26:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 6.0 |
| 2 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 5.7 |
| 3 | Vargas, Jason 2055 | pi sp | kc al | 5.0 |
| 4 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 4.7 |
| 5 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 4.0 |
| 6 | Paxton, James 3280 | pi sp | sea al | 4.0 |
| 7 | Harper, Bryce 3011 | rf | dc nl | 4.0 |
| 8 | Holland, Greg 2906 | pi cp | col nl | 4.0 |
| 9 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 3.7 |
| 10 | Chacin, Jhoulys 2711 | pi mr sp | sd nl | 3.7 |
Paxton struck out nine over seven scoreless innings, allowing four hits and one walk, in the 8-0 win over the Tigers.
Paxton earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 4.0 for the season, rising to sixth in season player rankings, fourth among American League pitchers.
National League Player of the Day—Maikel Franco of the Phillies hit a grand slam and went 3-for-4, in the 7-4 win over the Marlins.
American League Batter of the Day—Shin-Soo Choo of the Rangers hit a three-run homer and tripled, going 3-for-5, scoring three times, in the 14-3 win over the Twins.
Choo has now earned Box-Toppers points in 11 straight seasons. He earned his first Box-Toppers point in 2007 with the Indians and has 49.2 career points, sixth among active AL outfielders. His best season was 2010 with the Indians, when he had 9.0 points, seventh among AL batters. He had 1.0 point in 2016 with the Rangers.
National League Batter of the Day—There is no separate NL Batter of the Day for Wednesday because the overall NL Player of the Day is batter Maikel Franco.
Streaks—Two players have now earned Box-Toppers points for 12 straight seasons after both earned Player of the Game honors Wednesday:
- Ryan Zimmerman of the Nationals (HR 3-5 2R 3BI in the 11-4 win over the Rockies) earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2006 with the Nationals and has 57.3 career points, sixth among NL first basemen. His best season was 2013 with the Nationals, when he had 9.2 points, sixth among NL batters. He had 1.5 points in 2016 with the Nationals.
- Nick Markakis of the Braves (3-4 2R BI in the 8-2 win over the Mets) earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2006 with the Orioles and now has 48.1 career points, 11th among NL outfielders. His best season was 2009 with the Orioles, when he had 7.7 points, sixth among AL outfielders. In 2016, he had 5.0 points.
Scoring—Paxton earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Franco earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Choo earns 1.5 points for being AL Batter of the Day. All of Wednesday’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| 4/26 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 11.0 | SEA 8, DET 0 | James Paxton (W,3-0) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | |
| 8.0 | NYY 3, BOS 1 | Luis Severino (W,2-1) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | ||
| 6.0 | CHW 5, KC 2 | Jose Quintana (W,1-4) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 10 | ||
| BAT | 4.0 | TEX 14, MIN 3 | Shin-Soo Choo, RF | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| NL | 4.0 | PHI 7, MIA 4 | Maikel Franco, 3B | 4 | 1 | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.1 | CLE 7, HOU 6 | Cody Allen (S,4) | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | WSH 11, COL 4 | Ryan Zimmerman, 1B | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | LAA 8, OAK 5 | Cameron Maybin, LF | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | MIL 9, CIN 4 | Jett Bandy, C | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | SD 8, ARI 5 | Ryan Schimpf, 3B | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | ATL 8, NYM 2 | Nick Markakis, RF | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | PIT 6, CHC 5 | Josh Harrison, 3B | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | SF 4, LAD 3 (F/10) | Michael Morse, PH | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | BAL 5, TB 4 (F/11) | Craig Gentry, PR | 0 | 1 | 0 | 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 Players of the Game. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (’17). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’16-17), the period 2012-2017 (’12-17) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2017 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2016 total (+/-).| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’17 | ’16-17 | ’12-17 | Career | +/- |
| Paxton, James 3280 | pi sp | sea al | 4.0 | 8.4 | 15.1 | 15.1 | -0.4 |
| Schimpf, Ryan 3686 | 3b 2b | sd nl | 2.0 | 7.2 | 7.2 | 7.2 | -3.2 |
| Severino, Luis 3567 | pi sp mr | nyy al | 2.0 | 4.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 0.0 |
| Franco, Maikel 3510 | 3b | phi nl | 1.7 | 6.2 | 9.4 | 9.4 | -2.8 |
| Choo, Shin-Soo 2267 | rf | tex al | 1.5 | 2.5 | 22.5 | 49.2 | 0.5 |
| Quintana, Jose 3040 | pi sp | chi al | 1.0 | 11.4 | 36.2 | 36.2 | -9.4 |
| Allen, Cody 3265 | pi cp mr | cle al | 1.0 | 8.0 | 17.0 | 17.0 | -6.0 |
| Markakis, Nick 2116 | rf | atl nl | 1.0 | 6.0 | 19.0 | 48.1 | -4.0 |
| Maybin, Cameron 2672 | lf | ana al | 1.0 | 4.0 | 9.5 | 16.5 | -2.0 |
| Harrison, Josh 2947 | 3b 2b | pit nl | 1.0 | 3.0 | 7.5 | 9.0 | -1.0 |
| Zimmerman, Ryan 2180 | 1b | dc nl | 1.0 | 2.5 | 22.2 | 57.3 | -0.5 |
| Bandy, Jett 3711 | ca | mil nl | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 |
| Morse, Michael 2020 | lf 1b ph | sf nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 11.0 | 24.0 | 1.0 |
| Gentry, Craig 2977 | lf cf pr | bal al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 5.0 | 6.0 | 1.0 |
Angels' JC Ramirez tops players for Tuesday, April 25; Dodgers' Kershaw maintains top ranking in Box-Toppers points
Angels pitcher JC Ramirez is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, making his Box-Toppers debut.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of April 25:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 6.0 |
| 2 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 5.7 |
| 3 | Vargas, Jason 2055 | pi sp | kc al | 5.0 |
| 4 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 4.7 |
| 5 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc al | 4.0 |
| 6 | Harper, Bryce 3011 | rf | dc nl | 4.0 |
| 7 | Holland, Greg 2906 | pi cp | col nl | 4.0 |
| 8 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 3.7 |
| 9 | Chacin, Jhoulys 2711 | pi mr sp | sd nl | 3.7 |
| 10 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 3.4 |
Also Wednesday, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershawmaintains his first-place spot in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors. And Twins pitcher Ervin Santana rises to second place—first among American League players—after earning Player of the Game honors.
Player of the Day—Ramirez pitched seven scoreless innings, striking out seven and allowing two hits, in the 2-1, 11-inning win over the Athletics. Ramirez picked up a no-decision and did not earn the win because the game was in a scoreless tie when he exited.
This was also Ramirez’s Box-Toppers debut, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Ramirez made his Major League debut June 23, 2013, and was playing in his 114th career game. He is the 3,778th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
National League Player of the Day—Trea Turner of the Nationals hit for the cycle and went 4-for-6, scoring four times and driving in seven runs, in the 15-12 win over the Rockies.
American League Batter of the Day—Ian Kinsler of the Tigers doubled and went 4-for-5, scoring four times and driving in two runs, in the 19-9 win over the Mariners.
Kinsler has now earned Box-Toppers points in 12 straight seasons. He earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2006 with the Rangers and has 63.6 career points, second Among active AL second basemen (trailing Robinson Cano of the Mariners, who has 75.4). Kinsler’s best season was 2009 with the Rangers, when he had 11.2 points, eighth among AL batters. He had 6.0 points in 2016 with the Tigers, fifth among AL second basemen.
National League Batter of the Day—There is no separate NL Batter of the Day for Tuesday because the overall NL Player of the Day is batter Trea Turner.
Rankings—Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw maintained his spot atop Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday.
Kershaw (7IP 6H R BB 7K W in the 2-1 win over the Giants) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 6.0 for the season. Kershaw also now has 189.7 career Box-Toppers points, fourth-most among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. He trails third-ranked player Curt Schilling (194.1). Kershaw leads active players in career Box-Toppers points.
Also, Twins pitcher Ervin Santana rises to second place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday.
Santana (7IP 4H R 2BB 6K W in the 8-1 win over the Rangers) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 5.7 for the season, rising from fourth to second place among all players and first among AL players, passing Royals pitcher Jason Vargas (5.0).
Santana also now has 103.0 career Box-Toppers points, rising to 67th-place among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. With his point Tuesday, he passes two players on the “all-time” list—Ken Griffey Jr. (102.2) and Miguel Tejada (102.3). (It should be noted that if Griffey’s entire career from 1989 were tracked, rough estimates would give him about 150 Box-Toppers points.) Santana now trails 66th-ranked player Jamie Moyer (104.0).
Scoring—Ramirez earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Turner earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Kinsler earns 1.5 points for being AL Batter of the Day. All of Tuesday’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| 4/25 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 10.0 | `LAA 2, OAK 1 (F/11) | JC Ramirez | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | |
| NL | 9.0 | WSH 15, COL 12 | Trea Turner, SS | 6 | 4 | 4 | 7 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 6.0 | TB 2, BAL 0 | Chase Whitley (W,1-0; H,2) | - | - | - | - | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| BAT | 5.0 | DET 19, SEA 9 | Ian Kinsler, 2B | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 5.0 | ARI 9, SD 3 | Paul Goldschmidt, 1B | 4 | 2 | 4 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 5.0 | MIL 9, CIN 1 | Hernan Perez, SS-CF | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 5.0 | LAD 2, SF 1 | Clayton Kershaw (W,4-1) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | ||
| 5.0 | MIN 8, TEX 1 | Ervin Santana (W,4-0) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | ||
| 4.0 | TOR 6, STL 5 (F/11) | Jason Grilli (W,1-2) | - | - | - | - | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 3.2 | CHW 10, KC 5 | Dan Jennings (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 1.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | CHC 1, PIT 0 | Kyle Hendricks (W,2-1) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | ||
| 1.0 | HOU 4, CLE 2 | Norichika Aoki, RF-LF | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
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 Players of the Game. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (’17). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’16-17), the period 2012-2017 (’12-17) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2017 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2016 total (+/-).| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’17 | ’16-17 | ’12-17 | Career | +/- |
| Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 6.0 | 30.4 | 130.1 | 189.7 | -18.4 |
| Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 5.7 | 9.7 | 42.5 | 103.0 | 1.7 |
| Goldschmidt, Paul 2935 | 1b | ari nl | 2.0 | 6.5 | 37.9 | 41.9 | -2.5 |
| Grilli, Jason 2209 | pi cp mr | tor al | 2.0 | 3.0 | 16.7 | 27.4 | 1.0 |
| Ramirez, JC 3778 | pi sp | ana al | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Turner, Trea 3730 | ss | dc nl | 1.7 | 4.2 | 4.2 | 4.2 | -0.8 |
| Kinsler, Ian 2144 | 2b | det al | 1.5 | 7.5 | 29.5 | 63.6 | -4.5 |
| Hendricks, Kyle 3386 | pi sp | chi nl | 1.0 | 14.4 | 29.1 | 29.1 | -12.4 |
| Perez, Hernan 3577 | ss cf 3b 2b | mil nl | 1.0 | 6.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | -4.0 |
| Jennings, Dan 3591 | pi mr cp | chi al | 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 0.0 |
| Aoki, Norichika 3110 | rf lf | hou al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 1.0 |
| Whitley, Chase 3352 | pi mr sp | tb al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 4.7 | 4.7 | 1.0 |
White Sox' Miguel Gonzalez tops players for Monday, April 24; Dbacks' Greinke tops NL players
White Sox pitcher Miguel Gonzalez is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of April 24:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 5.0 |
| 2 | Vargas, Jason 2055 | pi sp | kc al | 5.0 |
| 3 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 4.7 |
| 4 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 4.7 |
| 5 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc al | 4.0 |
| 6 | Harper, Bryce 3011 | rf | dc nl | 4.0 |
| 7 | Holland, Greg 2906 | pi cp | col nl | 4.0 |
| 8 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 3.7 |
| 9 | Chacin, Jhoulys 2711 | pi mr sp | sd nl | 3.7 |
| 10 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 3.4 |
Gonzalez allowed one run and two hits over eight innings, striking out five, in the 12-1 win over the Royals. He earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 3.0 for the season, most of any of Monday’s top players and rises to 13th in season player rankings.
National League Player of the Day—Diamondbacks pitcher Zack Greinke struck out 11 over six innings, allowing one run and six hits, in the 7-6 win over the Padres. Greinke had a Box-Toppers game score of +9.0, same as overall Player of the Day Gonzalez, but Gonzalez ranks ahead on a tiebreaker because he had more innings pitched than Greinke, eight vs. six.
Greinke earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day, giving him 158.8 for his career, 14th-most among all players since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995. He trails 13th-ranked player John Smoltz (160.9).
National League Batter of the Day—Eric Thames of the Brewers hit two home runs and went 2-for-3, scoring three times and driving in three runs, in the 11-7 win over the Reds.
This was Thames’ first Box-Toppers point in more than four years. He last earned Player of the Game honors on Aug. 1, 2012, when he was with the Mariners. It is only his third career Player of the Game honor—he was also Player of the Game on July 10, 2011, with the Blue Jays and now has 4.0 career Box-Toppers points.
Thames spent 2014, 2015 and 2016 playing in Korea, winning the the Korea Baseball Organization Most Valuable Player award in 2015. He currently leads Major League Baseball in season runs (24) and home runs (10).
American League Batter of the Day—Adam Jones of the Orioles homered, doubled and went 3-for-3, driving in two runs, in the 6-3 win over the Rays.
Jones has now earned Box-Toppers points in 11 straight seasons with his first Player of the Game honor of 2017. He earned his first points in 2007 with the Mariners and has 51.0 career points, fifth among active AL outfielders. His best season was 2014 with the Orioles when he had 11.5 points, third among AL batters. In 2016 with the Orioles, he barely kept the streak alive, earning only 1.0 Box-Toppers point.
Streak—Giants pitcher Matt Cain has now earned Box-Toppers points in 13 straight seasons after earning Player of the Game honors Monday.
Cain (6IP 2H 0R BB 3K W in the 2-1 win over the Dodgers) earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2005 with the Giants and now has 100.7 career Box-Toppers points, 11th among active NL pitchers. His best season was 2010 with the Giants when he had 16.1 points, seventh among NL pitchers. During the last three seasons he barely kept the streak alive earning Player of the Game honors two or fewer times each season. In 2014, he had just 1.0 Box-Toppers point, in 2015, he had 2.0 and in 2016 he had 2.7.
Cain also becomes the 76th player since 1995 to reach 100 career Box-Toppers points (100.7). With his point Monday, he rises to 73rd on Box-Toppers “all-time” career points list, passing four players—Johnny Cueto of the Giants (99.8), Larry Walker (100.1), Jeff Bagwell (100.4) and Paul Konerko (100.7).
Scoring—Gonzalez earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Greinke earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Thames and Jones 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| 4/24 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 9.0 | CHW 12, KC 1 | Miguel Gonzalez (W,3-0) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | |
| NL | 9.0 | ARI 7, SD 6 | Zack Greinke (W,2-2) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 11 | |
| 6.0 | SF 2, LAD 1 | Matt Cain (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | ||
| BAT | 5.0 | MIL 11, CIN 7 | Eric Thames, 1B-LF | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.1 | COL 8, WSH 4 | Carlos Estevez (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| BAT | 3.0 | BAL 6, TB 3 | Adam Jones, CF | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | LAA 2, TOR 1 | Jesse Chavez (W,2-3) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | ||
| 2.0 | CHC 14, PIT 3 | Addison Russell, SS | 6 | 3 | 4 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | MIN 3, TEX 2 | Brandon Kintzler (S,5) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
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 Players of the Game. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (’17). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’16-17), the period 2012-2017 (’12-17) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2017 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2016 total (+/-).| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’17 | ’16-17 | ’12-17 | Career | +/- |
| Gonzalez, Miguel 3062 | pi sp | chi al | 3.0 | 12.1 | 40.9 | 40.9 | -6.1 |
| Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | ari nl | 2.7 | 12.4 | 81.7 | 158.8 | -7.0 |
| Russell, Addison 3559 | ss | chi nl | 2.0 | 5.5 | 8.0 | 8.0 | -1.5 |
| Chavez, Jesse 2780 | pi sp | ana al | 2.0 | 2.0 | 21.1 | 22.1 | 2.0 |
| Kintzler, Brandon 3150 | pi cp | min al | 2.0 | 2.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 2.0 |
| Jones, Adam 2347 | cf | bal al | 1.5 | 2.5 | 33.5 | 51.0 | 0.5 |
| Thames, Eric 2909 | 1b lf | mil nl | 1.5 | 1.5 | 2.5 | 4.0 | 1.5 |
| Estevez, Carlos 3641 | pi cp mr | col nl | 1.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | -4.0 |
| Cain, Matt 2081 | pi sp | sf nl | 1.0 | 3.7 | 27.4 | 100.7 | -1.7 |
Pirates' Ivan Nova tops players for Sunday, April 23; Red Sox' Rodriguez tops AL players
Pirates pitcher Ivan Nova is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Nova struck out seven over seven innings, allowing one run and four hits, in the 2-1 win over the Yankees.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of April 23:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 5.0 |
| 2 | Vargas, Jason 2055 | pi sp | kc al | 5.0 |
| 3 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 4.7 |
| 4 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 4.7 |
| 5 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc al | 4.0 |
| 6 | Harper, Bryce 3011 | rf | dc nl | 4.0 |
| 7 | Holland, Greg 2906 | pi cp | col nl | 4.0 |
| 8 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 3.7 |
| 9 | Chacin, Jhoulys 2711 | pi mr sp | sd nl | 3.7 |
| 10 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 3.4 |
American League Player of the Day—Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez struck out seven over six scoreless innings, allowing one hit, in the 6-2 win over the Orioles.
American League Batter of the Day—John Hicks of the Tigers homered and went 3-for-5, scoring twice and driving in five runs, in the 13-4 win over the Twins.
This was Hicks’ Box-Toppers debut, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Hicks made his Major League debut Aug. 29, 2015, and was playing in his 20th career game. He is the 3,777th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
National League Batter of the Day—Gerardo Parra of the Rockies homered and went 2-for-4, scoring twice and driving in three runs, in the 8-0 win over the Giants.
Rankings—Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer rises to fifth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Sunday.
Scherzer (8IP 5H 3R BB 9K W in the 6-3 win over the Mets) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 4.0 for the season. Scherzer led all players in Box-Toppers points in 2016 with 25.7.
Scherzer now has 135.7 career Box-Toppers points, 30th-most among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. He trails 29th-ranked player Andy Pettitte (138.5).
Streak—Mariners pitcher Yovani Gallardo has now earned Box-Toppers points in 11 straight seasons after earning Player of the Game honors Sunday.
Gallardo (6.1IP 4H R BB 7K W in the 11-1 win over the Athletics) earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2007 with the Brewers and has 90.7 career points, 10th among active AL pitchers. His best season was 2011 with the Brewers when he had 19.9 points, fourth among NL pitchers.
Notable—Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo earns his first Box-Toppers points in nearly three years after earning Player of the Game honors Sunday.
Arroyo (6IP 3H 2R 0BB 7K W in the 7-5 win over the Cubs) last earned Player of the Game honors on May 13, 2014, when he was with the Diamondbacks. He was out in 2015 recovering from Tommy John surgery and did not appear in 2016.
Scoring—Nova earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Rodriguez earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Hicks and Parra each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Sunday’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| 4/23 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 7.0 | PIT 2, NYY 1 | Ivan Nova (W,2-2) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | |
| AL | 7.0 | BOS 6, BAL 2 | Eduardo Rodriguez (W,1-1) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 7 | |
| 6.1 | SEA 11, OAK 1 | Yovani Gallardo (W,1-2) | - | - | - | - | 6.1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | ||
| 6.0 | TEX 5, KC 2 | Yu Darvish (W,2-2) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 8 | ||
| 6.0 | CIN 7, CHC 5 | Bronson Arroyo (W,2-2) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 7 | ||
| BAT | 5.0 | DET 13, MIN 4 | John Hicks, 1B | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 5.0 | WSH 6, NYM 3 | Max Scherzer (W,3-1) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 9 | ||
| 5.0 | `PHI 5, ATL 2 | Zach Eflin | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 4.0 | CHW 6, CLE 2 | Derek Holland (W,2-2) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | ||
| 4.0 | `HOU 6, TB 4 (F/10) | Brad Peacock | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | ||
| BAT | 3.0 | COL 8, SF 0 | Gerardo Parra, LF | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | STL 6, MIL 4 | Kolten Wong, 2B | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | TOR 6, LAA 2 | Marcus Stroman (W,2-2) | - | - | - | - | 9.0 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||
| 3.0 | LAD 6, ARI 2 | Brandon McCarthy (W,3-0) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | ||
| 2.0 | MIA 7, SD 3 | Christian Yelich, CF | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
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 Players of the Game. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (’17). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’16-17), the period 2012-2017 (’12-17) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2017 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2016 total (+/-).| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’17 | ’16-17 | ’12-17 | Career | +/- |
| Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 4.0 | 29.7 | 107.9 | 135.7 | -21.7 |
| Nova, Ivan 2796 | pi sp | pit nl | 3.0 | 11.0 | 26.7 | 34.1 | -5.0 |
| Rodriguez, Eduardo 3480 | pi sp | bos al | 2.7 | 7.4 | 13.4 | 13.4 | -2.0 |
| Darvish, Yu 3003 | pi sp | tex al | 2.0 | 12.4 | 57.6 | 57.6 | -8.4 |
| Holland, Derek 2634 | pi sp | chi al | 2.0 | 6.0 | 28.1 | 47.8 | -2.0 |
| McCarthy, Brandon 2082 | pi sp | lad nl | 2.0 | 4.7 | 24.4 | 38.5 | -0.7 |
| Parra, Gerardo 2746 | rf | col nl | 1.5 | 4.0 | 16.0 | 22.5 | -1.0 |
| Hicks, John 3777 | 1b | det al | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Stroman, Marcus 3327 | pi sp | tor al | 1.0 | 7.7 | 24.1 | 24.1 | -5.7 |
| Yelich, Christian 3334 | cf | fla nl | 1.0 | 6.5 | 16.5 | 16.5 | -4.5 |
| Eflin, Zach 3679 | pi sp | phi nl | 1.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | -3.0 |
| Gallardo, Yovani 2333 | pi sp | sea al | 1.0 | 3.0 | 39.4 | 90.7 | -1.0 |
| Wong, Kolten 3377 | 2b | stl nl | 1.0 | 2.0 | 11.5 | 11.5 | 0.0 |
| Arroyo, Bronson 1375 | pi sp | cin nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 21.4 | 85.9 | 1.0 |
| Peacock, Brad 2968 | pi sp | hou al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 7.7 | 10.4 | 1.0 |
Marlins' Dan Straily tops players for Saturday, April 22; Indians' Carrasco rises to 7th in Box-Toppers player rankings
Marlins pitcher Dan Straily is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of April 22:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 5.0 |
| 2 | Vargas, Jason 2055 | pi sp | kc al | 5.0 |
| 3 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 4.7 |
| 4 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 4.7 |
| 5 | Harper, Bryce 3011 | rf | dc nl | 4.0 |
| 6 | Holland, Greg 2906 | pi cp | col nl | 4.0 |
| 7 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 3.7 |
| 8 | Chacin, Jhoulys 2711 | pi mr sp | sd nl | 3.7 |
| 9 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 3.4 |
| 10 | Morrison, Logan 2794 | 1b | tb al | 3.2 |
Straily struck out 14 over seven innings, allowing two runs on four hits, in the 6-3, 11-inning win over the Padres. Straily picked up a no decision and did not earn the win because the game was tied when he exited.
American League Player of the Day—Indians pitcher Carlos Carrasco struck out eight over eight scoreless innings, allowing three hits, in the 7-0 win over the White Sox.
Carrasco earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day, giving him 3.7 for the season and rises to seventh place in Box-Toppers season player rankings.
National League Batter of the Day—Willson Contreras of the Cubs hit a grand slam, doubled and went 3-for-4, scoring three times and driving in four runs, in the 12-8 win over the Reds.
This was Contreras’s Box-Toppers debut, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Contreras made his Major League debut June 17, 2016, and was playing in his 91st career game. He is the 3,776th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
American League Batter of the Day—Chris Carter of the Yankees hit a pinch-hit, three-run homer in the 11-5 win over the Pirates.
Scoring—Straily earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Carrasco earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Contreras and Carter each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Saturday’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| 4/22 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 13.0 | `MIA 6, SD 3 (F/11) | Dan Straily | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 14 | |
| AL | 12.0 | CLE 7, CHW 0 | Carlos Carrasco (W,2-1) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | |
| BAT | 6.0 | CHC 12, CIN 8 | Willson Contreras, C | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 6.0 | STL 4, MIL 1 | Lance Lynn (W,2-1) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | ||
| 6.0 | `PHI 4, ATL 3 (F/10) | Jerad Eickhoff | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | ||
| 5.1 | WSH 3, NYM 1 | Gio Gonzalez (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 6.1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | ||
| 4.1 | TB 6, HOU 3 | Austin Pruitt (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 2.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 4.0 | COL 12, SF 3 | Mark Reynolds, 1B | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 4.0 | ARI 11, LAD 5 | Yasmany Tomas, LF | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| BAT | 4.0 | NYY 11, PIT 5 | Chris Carter, PH | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.1 | OAK 4, SEA 3 | Ryan Madson (S,1) | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 3.0 | LAA 5, TOR 4 | Andrelton Simmons, SS | 4 | 1 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | `TEX 2, KC 1 | Nick Martinez | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||
| 1.0 | DET 5, MIN 4 | Nicholas Castellanos, 3B | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | BAL 4, BOS 2 | Jonathan Schoop, 2B | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
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 Players of the Game. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (’17). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’16-17), the period 2012-2017 (’12-17) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2017 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2016 total (+/-).| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’17 | ’16-17 | ’12-17 | Career | +/- |
| Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 3.7 | 16.1 | 44.8 | 50.2 | -8.7 |
| Straily, Dan 3080 | pi sp | fla nl | 3.0 | 10.0 | 20.7 | 20.7 | -4.0 |
| Lynn, Lance 2992 | pi sp | stl nl | 2.7 | 2.7 | 58.6 | 58.6 | 2.7 |
| Reynolds, Mark 2297 | 1b | col nl | 2.5 | 6.5 | 21.2 | 53.9 | -1.5 |
| Schoop, Jonathan 3307 | 2b | bal al | 2.0 | 6.5 | 11.5 | 11.5 | -2.5 |
| Pruitt, Austin 3773 | pi cp mr | tb al | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Carter, Chris 2828 | 1b ph | nyy al | 1.5 | 11.0 | 29.9 | 30.9 | -8.0 |
| Contreras, Willson 3776 | ca | chi nl | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Eickhoff, Jerad 3566 | pi sp | phi nl | 1.0 | 9.0 | 14.0 | 14.0 | -7.0 |
| Tomas, Yasmany 3489 | lf | ari nl | 1.0 | 8.7 | 12.2 | 12.2 | -6.7 |
| Gonzalez, Gio 2626 | pi sp | dc nl | 1.0 | 7.0 | 58.1 | 87.5 | -5.0 |
| Castellanos, Nick 3349 | 3b | det al | 1.0 | 6.5 | 14.7 | 14.7 | -4.5 |
| Madson, Ryan 1841 | pi cp | oak al | 1.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 24.7 | -2.0 |
| Simmons, Andrelton 3165 | ss | ana al | 1.0 | 2.5 | 8.0 | 8.0 | -0.5 |
| Martinez, Nick 3430 | pi sp | tex al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 4.7 | 4.7 | 1.0 |
Indians' Corey Kluber tops players for Friday, April 21; Harper, Holland rise into Box-Toppers top 10
Indians pitcher Corey Kluber is Friday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Kluber pitched a three-hit, complete-game shutout, striking out nine and walking two, in the 3-0 win over the White Sox.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of April 21:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 5.0 |
| 2 | Vargas, Jason 2055 | pi sp | kc al | 5.0 |
| 3 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 4.7 |
| 4 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 4.7 |
| 5 | Harper, Bryce 3011 | rf | dc nl | 4.0 |
| 6 | Holland, Greg 2906 | pi cp | col nl | 4.0 |
| 7 | Chacin, Jhoulys 2711 | pi mr sp | sd nl | 3.7 |
| 8 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 3.4 |
| 9 | Morrison, Logan 2794 | 1b | tb al | 3.2 |
| 10 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 3.0 |
Kluber led AL players in Box-Toppers points in 2016 with 21.2. This was Kluber’s first Box-Toppers Player of the Game honor for 2017.
National League Player of the Day—Padres pitcher Trevor Cahill allowed one run and three hits over seven innings, striking out six, in the 5-3 win over the Marlins.
National League Batter of the Day—Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright homered and went 2-for-3, scoring once and driving in four runs, in the 6-3 win over the Brewers.
This is the first time this season that a pitcher has earned Player of the Game honors for batting. It was done eight times in 2016 (including twice by Wainwright) and seven times in 2015. Wainwright has earned Player of the Game honors four times in his career for batting: July 24, 2012, May 2, 2016 and Sept. 5, 2016. He’s earned NL Batter of the Day three times (the only time he didn’t was Sept. 5, 2016).
Wainwright had a Box-Toppers game score of +4.0 for batting, which was the same as his Box-Toppers game score for pitching (5IP 6H 2R 0BB 9K W). But in cases of game score ties, batters beat pitchers, so Wainwright the batter beat out Wainwright the pitcher on the tiebreaker to earn Player of the Game honors.
Wainwright also now has 113.5 career Box-Toppers points, rising to 48th among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. With his points Friday, he passes four players on the “all-time” list: Kevin Brown (112.8), Sammy Sosa (113.2), Dan Haren (113.2) and Chris Carpenter (113.3). He now trails 47th-ranked player Josh Beckett (114.9).
American League Batter of the Day—Joey Gallo of the Rangers hit two homers, going 2-for-3 and driving in three runs, in the 6-2 win over the Royals.
Rankings—Two players rise into Box-Toppers top 10 season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Friday:
- Bryce Harper of the Nationals (HR 2B 2-4 2R 2BI in the 4-3, 11-inning win over the Mets) rises to fifth place. He earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being Player of the Game, giving him 4.0 for the season.
- Rockies closing pitcher Greg Holland (1IP 0H 0R 0BB 2K Sv in the 6-5 win over the Giants) rises to sixth place. He earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being Player of the Game, giving him 4.0 for the season.
Debuts—Two players made their Box-Toppers debut, the first time in their careers they earned Player of the Game honors:
- Blue Jays pitcher Ryan Tepera (3IP H 0R 0BB 3K W in the 8-7, 13-inning win over the Angels) made his Major League debut May 10, 2015, and was playing in his 59th career game. He is the 3,774th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
- Cubs pitcher Carl Edwards Jr. (1IP 0H 0R 0BB 2K W in the 6-5, 11-inning win over the Reds) made his Major League debut Sept. 7, 2015, and was playing in his 48th career game. He is the 3,775th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Scoring—Kluber earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Cahill earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Wainwright and Gallo 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.
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| 4/21 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 13.0 | CLE 3, CHW 0 | Corey Kluber (W,2-1) | - | - | - | - | 9.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 | |
| NL | 7.0 | SD 5, MIA 3 | Trevor Cahill (W,1-2) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |
| 5.0 | PHI 4, ATL 3 | Jeremy Hellickson (W,3-0) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 | ||
| 5.0 | TOR 8, LAA 7 (F/13) | Ryan Tepera (W,1-0) | - | - | - | - | 3.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| BAT | 4.0 | STL 6, MIL 3 | Adam Wainwright, P | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| BAT | 4.0 | TEX 6, KC 2 | Joey Gallo, 3B | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.1 | PIT 6, NYY 3 | Juan Nicasio (W,1-2) | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | ARI 13, LAD 5 | Daniel Descalso, PH-1B | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | BAL 2, BOS 0 | Dylan Bundy (W,3-1) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | ||
| 3.0 | CHC 6, CIN 5 (F/11) | Carl Edwards Jr. (W,1-0) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | HOU 6, TB 3 | Ken Giles (S,4) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | COL 6, SF 5 | Greg Holland (S,9) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | WSH 4, NYM 3 (F/11) | Bryce Harper, RF | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | MIN 6, DET 3 | Eddie Rosario, LF | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | OAK 3, SEA 1 | Sean Manaea (W,1-1) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
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 Players of the Game. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (’17). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’16-17), the period 2012-2017 (’12-17) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2017 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2016 total (+/-).| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’17 | ’16-17 | ’12-17 | Career | +/- |
| Harper, Bryce 3011 | rf | dc nl | 4.0 | 7.0 | 31.4 | 31.4 | 1.0 |
| Holland, Greg 2906 | pi cp | col nl | 4.0 | 4.0 | 34.0 | 37.0 | 4.0 |
| Bundy, Dylan 3655 | pi sp | bal al | 3.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | -3.0 |
| Gallo, Joey 3485 | 3b | tex al | 3.0 | 3.0 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 3.0 |
| Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 2.0 | 23.2 | 67.4 | 67.4 | -19.2 |
| Hellickson, Jeremy 2778 | pi sp | phi nl | 2.0 | 15.1 | 36.1 | 46.8 | -11.1 |
| Cahill, Trevor 2658 | pi sp mr | sd nl | 1.7 | 4.7 | 19.4 | 41.9 | -1.3 |
| Wainwright, Adam 2150 | pi sp | stl nl | 1.5 | 11.7 | 62.8 | 113.5 | -8.7 |
| Nicasio, Juan 2888 | pi mr sp | pit nl | 1.0 | 10.0 | 22.4 | 26.4 | -8.0 |
| Manaea, Sean 3637 | pi sp | oak al | 1.0 | 7.7 | 7.7 | 7.7 | -5.7 |
| Giles, Ken 3402 | pi cp mr | hou al | 1.0 | 4.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | -2.0 |
| Rosario, Eddie 3542 | lf | min al | 1.0 | 4.0 | 5.5 | 5.5 | -2.0 |
| Descalso, Daniel 2855 | ph 1b | ari nl | 1.0 | 2.0 | 8.7 | 11.2 | 0.0 |
| Edwards, Carl Jr. 3775 | pi mr | chi nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Tepera, Ryan 3774 | pi mr | tor al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw tops Box-Toppers weekly player rankings
Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw rises to lead Box-Toppers weekly player rankings. Royals' Jason Vargas continues to lead American League players.
Read MoreNationals, week's hottest team, rise to lead Box-Toppers weekly team rankings
Washington Nationals rise to lead Box-Toppers team rankings and were the week's hottest team. Red Sox top AL teams. Reds drop from 1st to 6th.
Read MoreRed Sox' Chris Sale tops players for Thursday, April 20, rises to 3rd in Box-Toppers player rankings
Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to third place in season player rankings.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of April 20:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 5.0 |
| 2 | Vargas, Jason 2055 | pi sp | kc al | 5.0 |
| 3 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 4.7 |
| 4 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 4.7 |
| 5 | Chacin, Jhoulys 2711 | pi mr sp | sd nl | 3.7 |
| 6 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 3.4 |
| 7 | Morrison, Logan 2794 | 1b | tb al | 3.2 |
| 8 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 3.0 |
| 9 | Syndergaard, Noah 3472 | pi sp | nym nl | 3.0 |
| 10 | Kimbrel, Craig 2825 | pi cp | bos al | 3.0 |
Sale struck out 13 over eight scoreless innings, allowing four hits and walking one, in the 4-1, 10-inning win over the Blue Jays. Sale picked up the no decision and did not earn the win because when he exited, the game was in a scoreless tie.
Sale earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 4.7 for the season, rising to third in season player rankings.
National League Player of the Day—Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg struck out 10 over seven innings, allowing two runs on six hits, in the 3-2 win over the Braves.
American League Batter of the Day—Ryon Healy of the Athletics doubled and went 3-for-3, scoring once and driving in two runs, in the 9-6 win over the Mariners.
National League Batter of the Day—Travis Shaw of the Brewers hit a three-run homer and went 2-for-4, in the 7-5 win over the Cardinals.
Scoring—Sale earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Strasburg earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Healy and Shaw 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.
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| 4/20 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 16.0 | `BOS 4, TOR 1 (F/10) | Chris Sale | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 13 | |
| 14.0 | `BAL 2, CIN 1 (F/10) | Wade Miley | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 11 | ||
| 8.2 | HOU 2, LAA 1 | Lance McCullers Jr. (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 6.2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 | ||
| 6.0 | TB 8, DET 1 | Erasmo Ramirez (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | ||
| NL | 5.0 | WSH 3, ATL 2 | Stephen Strasburg (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10 | |
| 4.0 | TEX 1, KC 0 (F/13) | Dario Alvarez (W,1-0) | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | ||
| 3.2 | SD 4, ARI 1 | Clayton Richard (W,2-2) | - | - | - | - | 6.2 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | ||
| 3.1 | CLE 6, MIN 2 | Trevor Bauer (W,1-2) | - | - | - | - | 6.1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | ||
| BAT | 3.0 | OAK 9, SEA 6 | Ryon Healy, 1B | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| BAT | 2.0 | MIL 7, STL 5 | Travis Shaw, 3B | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 1.0 | PHI 6, NYM 4 | Tommy Joseph, 1B | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
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 Players of the Game. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (’17). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’16-17), the period 2012-2017 (’12-17) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2017 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2016 total (+/-).| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’17 | ’16-17 | ’12-17 | Career | +/- |
| Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 4.7 | 18.1 | 86.1 | 91.1 | -8.7 |
| Richard, Clayton 2584 | pi sp | sd nl | 3.0 | 5.0 | 13.2 | 32.6 | 1.0 |
| Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 2.7 | 17.8 | 76.9 | 85.6 | -12.4 |
| Healy, Ryon 3685 | 1b 3b | oak al | 2.5 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5.5 | -0.5 |
| McCullers, Lance 3488 | pi sp | hou al | 2.0 | 8.1 | 14.8 | 14.8 | -4.1 |
| Miley, Wade 3006 | pi sp | bal al | 2.0 | 8.0 | 38.4 | 38.4 | -4.0 |
| Ramirez, Erasmo 1786 | pi cp sp | tb al | 2.0 | 5.7 | 14.7 | 16.7 | -1.7 |
| Shaw, Travis 3544 | 3b 1b | mil nl | 1.5 | 8.5 | 12.7 | 12.7 | -5.5 |
| Bauer, Trevor 3065 | pi sp | cle al | 1.0 | 12.4 | 30.5 | 30.5 | -10.4 |
| Joseph, Tommy 3681 | 1b | phi nl | 1.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | -2.0 |
| Alvarez, Dario 3663 | pi cp | tex al | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 |
Royals' Vargas tops players for Wednesday, April 19; Dodgers' Kershaw regains Box-Toppers season points lead
Royals pitcher Jason Vargas is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to second place in season player rankings.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of April 19:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 5.0 |
| 2 | Vargas, Jason 2055 | pi sp | kc al | 5.0 |
| 3 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 4.7 |
| 4 | Chacin, Jhoulys 2711 | pi mr sp | sd nl | 3.7 |
| 5 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 3.4 |
| 6 | Morrison, Logan 2794 | 1b | tb al | 3.2 |
| 7 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 3.0 |
| 8 | Syndergaard, Noah 3472 | pi sp | nym nl | 3.0 |
| 9 | Kimbrel, Craig 2825 | pi cp | bos al | 3.0 |
| 10 | Devenski, Chris 3702 | pi mr cp | hou al | 3.0 |
Also Wednesday, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw regains first place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Player of the Day—Vargas pitched seven scoreless innings, striking out nine and allowing four hits, in the 2-0 win over the Giants.
Vargas earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 5.0 for the season, rising to second in Box-Toppers season player rankings. He trails Kershaw, who also now has 5.0 Box-Toppers points, but ranks ahead on a tiebreaker because he had more 2016 points than Vargas—24.4 vs. 1.0.
National League Player of the Day—Padres pitcher Jhoulys Chacin pitched eight scoreless innings, striking out five and allowing three hits, in the 1-0 win over the Diamondbacks.
Chacin earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day, giving him 3.7 for the season, rising to fourth place in season player rankings.
National League Batter of the Day—Bryce Harper of the Nationals hit two home runs, including a grand slam, in the 14-4 win over the Braves. Harper also doubled and went 4-for-4, scoring three times and driving in five total runs.
American League Batter of the Day—Mitch Haniger of the Mariners doubled and went 3-for-4, scoring three times and driving in four runs, in the 10-5 win over the Marlins.
Rankings—Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw regained the lead in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Wednesday.
Kershaw (7IP 5H 2R BB 10K W in the 4-2 win over the Rockies) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 5.0 for the season, regaining the season points lead for the third time this season. Kershaw passes previous leader, Twins pitcher Ervin Santana (4.7 points), who drops to third place.
Kershaw also now has 188.7 career Box-Toppers points, fourth among all players since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995, trailing third-place player Curt Schilling (194.1). Kershaw is the active leader in career Box-Toppers points, ahead of Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia (187.0).
Streaks—Two players extended their streaksearning Box-Toppers points for 10 or more consecutive seasons after earning Player of the Game honors Wednesday:
- Blue Jays pitcher Francisco Liriano (5.1IP 4H 0R BB 6K W in the 3-0 win over the Red Sox) has now earned Box-Toppers points for 10 straight seasons. Liriano earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2005 with the Twins, but his consecutive seasons streak earning points began in 2008 with the Twins. He has 104.2 career Box-Toppers points, 65th-most among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. With his point Wednesday, he passes Jamie Moyer (104.0) on the “all-time” list and now trails 64th-ranked player Carlos Beltran of the Astros (104.9). Liriano’s best season was 2013 with the Pirates when he had 16.7 Box-Toppers points, sixth among NL pitchers.
- Orioles pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez (7.2IP 2H 0R 4BB 3K W in the 2-0 win over the Reds) has now earned Box-Toppers points for 11 straight seasons and has 80.5 career points, 12th among active AL pitchers. His best year was 2013, when he had 14.5 Box-Toppers points with the Indians, ninth among AL pitchers.
Debut—Rays closing pitcher Austin Pruitt made his Box-Toppers debut Wednesday, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors.
Pruitt (3.1IP H 0R 0BB 5K W in the 8-7 win over the Tigers) made his Major League debut April 2 and was playing in his seventh career game. He is the 3,773rd player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Scoring—Vargas earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Chacin earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Harper and Haniger each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Wednesday’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| 4/19 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 12.0 | KC 2, SF 0 | Jason Vargas (W,3-0) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | |
| NL | 9.0 | SD 1, ARI 0 | Jhoulys Chacin (W,2-2) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | |
| BAT | 8.0 | WSH 14, ATL 4 | Bryce Harper, RF | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 7.1 | TB 8, DET 7 | Austin Pruitt (W,1-0) | - | - | - | - | 3.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | ||
| 7.0 | LAD 4, COL 2 | Clayton Kershaw (W,3-1) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 10 | ||
| 6.1 | TOR 3, BOS 0 | Francisco Liriano (W,1-1) | - | - | - | - | 5.1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | ||
| 6.0 | NYM 5, PHI 4 | Jay Bruce, RF | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| BAT | 6.0 | SEA 10, MIA 5 | Mitch Haniger, RF | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 4.2 | BAL 2, CIN 0 | Ubaldo Jimenez (W,1-0) | - | - | - | - | 7.2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | ||
| 4.0 | HOU 5, LAA 1 | Josh Reddick, RF-LF | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | STL 2, PIT 1 | Dexter Fowler, CF | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | CHC 7, MIL 4 | Addison Russell, SS | 4 | 1 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | OAK 9, TEX 1 | Khris Davis, LF | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | NYY 9, CHW 1 | Starlin Castro, 2B | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
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 Players of the Game. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (’17). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’16-17), the period 2012-2017 (’12-17) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2017 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2016 total (+/-).| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’17 | ’16-17 | ’12-17 | Career | +/- |
| Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 5.0 | 29.4 | 129.1 | 188.7 | -19.4 |
| Vargas, Jason 2055 | pi sp | kc al | 5.0 | 6.0 | 31.4 | 52.2 | 4.0 |
| Chacin, Jhoulys 2711 | pi mr sp | sd nl | 3.7 | 9.4 | 16.1 | 31.5 | -2.0 |
| Harper, Bryce 3011 | rf | dc nl | 3.0 | 6.0 | 30.4 | 30.4 | 0.0 |
| Davis, Khris 3242 | lf | oak al | 2.5 | 9.2 | 19.2 | 19.2 | -4.2 |
| Haniger, MItch 3772 | rf | sea al | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 |
| Bruce, Jay 2453 | rf | nym nl | 2.0 | 10.5 | 27.7 | 60.8 | -6.5 |
| Castro, Starlin 2767 | 2b | nyy al | 2.0 | 9.0 | 17.5 | 27.5 | -5.0 |
| Reddick, Josh 2936 | rf lf | hou al | 2.0 | 5.5 | 25.4 | 26.4 | -1.5 |
| Liriano, Francisco 2104 | pi sp | tor al | 1.0 | 9.0 | 58.7 | 104.2 | -7.0 |
| Jimenez, Ubaldo 2349 | pi sp | bal al | 1.0 | 5.7 | 37.6 | 80.5 | -3.7 |
| Russell, Addison 3559 | ss | chi nl | 1.0 | 4.5 | 7.0 | 7.0 | -2.5 |
| Fowler, Dexter 2698 | cf | stl nl | 1.0 | 2.5 | 16.5 | 19.0 | -0.5 |
| Pruitt, Austin 3773 | pi cp | tb al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
Nationals' Max Scherzer tops players for Tuesday, April 18, rises to 5th in Box-Toppers player rankings
Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to fifth place in season player rankings.
Scherzer struck out seven over seven scoreless innings, allowing two hit and three walks, in the 3-1 win over the Braves.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of April 18:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 4.7 |
| 2 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 4.0 |
| 3 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 3.4 |
| 4 | Morrison, Logan 2794 | 1b | tb al | 3.2 |
| 5 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 3.0 |
| 6 | Syndergaard, Noah 3472 | pi sp | nym nl | 3.0 |
| 7 | Kimbrel, Craig 2825 | pi cp | bos al | 3.0 |
| 8 | Devenski, Chris 3702 | pi mr cp | hou al | 3.0 |
| 9 | Bedrosian, Cam 3694 | pi cp | ana al | 3.0 |
| 10 | Marte, Starling 3122 | lf cf | pit nl | 3.0 |
Scherzer earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 3.0 for the season. He also now has 134.7 career points and rises to 30th place among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. He passes Jason Giambi (133.4) on the “all-time” list and now trails 29th-ranked player Andy Pettitte (138.5).
American League Player of the Day—Athletics pitcher Andrew Triggs struck out five over six innings, allowing two runs (none earned) and three hits, in the 4-2 win over the Rangers.
National League Batter of the Day—Nolan Arenado of the Rockies homered twice and doubled, going 3-for-4 and driving in three runs, in the 4-3 win over the Dodgers.
American League Batter of the Day—Mookie Betts of the Red Sox homered and went 3-for-5, scoring three times and driving in two runs, in the 8-7 win over the Blue Jays.
Streak—Edwin Encarnacion of the Indians has now earned Box-Toppers points in 13 consecutive seasons after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday.
Encarnacion (HR 1-3 2R 3BI in the 11-4 win over the Twins) earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2005 with the Reds and has 68.1 career points, ninth among active AL batters. His best season was 2015 with the Blue Jays, when he had 10.4 Box-Toppers points, fifth among AL batters.
Rankings—Angels closing pitcher Cam Bedrosian rises to ninth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday.
Bedrosian (2IP 2H 0R 0BB 3K Sv in the 5-2 win over the Astros) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being Player of the Game, giving him 3.0 for the season.
Notable—Starling Marte of the Pirates was suspended Tuesday for 80 games for violating baseball’s performance enhancing drug policy. Marte currently ranks 10th in Box-Toppers season player rankings with 3.0 Box-Toppers points. He was NL Batter of the Day on April 9 and April 15.
Scoring—Scherzer earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Triggs earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Arenado and Betts each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Tuesday’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| 4/18 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 9.0 | WSH 3, ATL 1 | Max Scherzer (W,2-1) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | |
| 7.0 | MIA 5, SEA 0 | Wei-Yin Chen (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | ||
| AL | 6.0 | OAK 4, TEX 2 | Andrew Triggs (W,3-0) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | |
| 5.1 | CHW 4, NYY 1 | Miguel Gonzalez (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 8.1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||
| 4.1 | ARI 11, SD 2 | Shelby Miller (W,2-1) | - | - | - | - | 7.1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | ||
| BAT | 4.0 | COL 4, LAD 3 | Nolan Arenado, 3B | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 4.0 | CIN 9, BAL 3 | Adam Duvall, LF | 4 | 1 | 2 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 4.0 | TB 5, DET 1 | Matt Andriese (W,1-0) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||
| BAT | 3.0 | BOS 8, TOR 7 | Mookie Betts, RF | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | CHC 9, MIL 7 | Miguel Montero, C | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | CLE 11, MIN 4 | Edwin Encarnacion, DH | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | LAA 5, HOU 2 | Cam Bedrosian (S,3) | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 2.0 | PHI 6, NYM 2 (F/10) | Aaron Altherr, PH-LF | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | SF 2, KC 1 (F/11) | Mark Melancon (S,3) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 1.0 | `STL 2, PIT 1 | Matt Bowman (H,3) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
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 Players of the Game. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (’17). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’16-17), the period 2012-2017 (’12-17) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2017 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2016 total (+/-).| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’17 | ’16-17 | ’12-17 | Career | +/- |
| Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 3.0 | 28.7 | 106.9 | 134.7 | -22.7 |
| Bedrosian, Cam 3694 | pi cp | ana al | 3.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 0.0 |
| Triggs, Andrew 3723 | pi sp | oak al | 2.7 | 3.7 | 3.7 | 3.7 | 1.7 |
| Duvall, Adam 3573 | lf | cin nl | 2.0 | 8.5 | 10.0 | 10.0 | -4.5 |
| Arenado, Nolan 3306 | 3b | col nl | 1.5 | 12.2 | 22.2 | 22.2 | -9.2 |
| Betts, Mookie 3404 | rf | bos al | 1.5 | 7.7 | 12.7 | 12.7 | -4.7 |
| Gonzalez, Miguel 3062 | pi sp | chi al | 1.0 | 10.1 | 38.9 | 38.9 | -8.1 |
| Encarnacion, Edwin 2098 | dh 1b | cle al | 1.0 | 9.0 | 44.1 | 68.1 | -7.0 |
| Melancon, Mark 2792 | pi cp | sf nl | 1.0 | 4.0 | 20.0 | 25.0 | -2.0 |
| Altherr, Aaron 3563 | lf ph | phi nl | 1.0 | 3.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 | -1.5 |
| Miller, Shelby 3134 | pi sp | ari nl | 1.0 | 3.0 | 39.1 | 39.1 | -1.0 |
| Chen, Wei-Yin 3026 | pi sp | fla nl | 1.0 | 3.0 | 28.1 | 28.1 | -1.0 |
| Montero, Miguel 2304 | ca | chi nl | 1.0 | 3.0 | 16.7 | 32.9 | -1.0 |
| Andriese, Matt 3505 | pi sp mr | tb al | 1.0 | 3.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | -1.0 |
| Bowman, Matt 3699 | pi mr | stl nl | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 |
Rangers' A.J. Griffin tops players for Monday, April 17; Cardinals' Lynn tops NL players
Rangers pitcher A.J. Griffin is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Griffin struck out eight over six scoreless innings, allowing one hit and one walk, in the 7-0 win over the Athletics.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of April 17:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 4.7 |
| 2 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 4.0 |
| 3 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 3.4 |
| 4 | Morrison, Logan 2794 | 1b | tb al | 3.2 |
| 5 | Syndergaard, Noah 3472 | pi sp | nym nl | 3.0 |
| 6 | Kimbrel, Craig 2825 | pi cp | bos al | 3.0 |
| 7 | Devenski, Chris 3702 | pi mr cp | hou al | 3.0 |
| 8 | Marte, Starling 3122 | lf cf | pit nl | 3.0 |
| 9 | Vargas, Jason 2055 | pi sp | kc al | 3.0 |
| 10 | Holland, Greg 2906 | pi cp | col nl | 3.0 |
National League Player of the Day—Cardinals pitcher Lance Lynn pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out five, in the 2-1 win over the Pirates.
National League Batter of the Day—Freddie Freeman of the Braves hit two home runs and two doubles in the 5-4 win over the Padres. Freeman went 4-for-4, scoring twice and driving in three runs.
American League Batter of the Day—Aaron Judge of the Yankees hit a two-run homer and went 2-for-4, driving in three total runs, in the 7-4 win over the White Sox.
Streak—Ryan Braun of the Brewers has now earned Box-Toppers points in 11 straight seasons after earning Player of the Game honors Monday.
Braun (HR 2B 3-4 2R 3BI in the 6-3 win over the Cubs) earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2007 with the Brewers and has 89.2 career points, second among active NL batters (trailing Ryan Howard of the Braves with 98.7). Braun’s best season was 2012 with the Brewers when he had 12.5 Box-Toppers points, first among NL batters.
Rankings—Two players rose in Box-Toppers top 10 season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Monday:
- Red Sox pitcher Craig Kimbrel (1IP 0H 0R 0BB 3K Sv in the 4-3 win over the Rays) rises to sixth place in player rankings. He earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being Player of the Game, giving him 3.0 for the season.
- Astros pitcher Chris Devenski (2IP 0H 0R 0BB 4K ND in the 3-0 win over the Angels) rises to seventh place in player rankings. He earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being Player of the Game, giving him 3.0 for the season.
Scoring—Griffin earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Lynn earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Freeman and Judge 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| 4/17 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 12.0 | TEX 7, OAK 0 | A.J. Griffin (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | |
| NL | 8.0 | STL 2, PIT 1 | Lance Lynn (W,1-1) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | |
| 8.0 | SEA 6, MIA 1 | Ariel Miranda (W,1-1) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | ||
| 6.0 | `ARI 4, LAD 2 | Robbie Ray | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 10 | ||
| 6.0 | `HOU 3, LAA 0 | Chris Devenski | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | ||
| BAT | 5.0 | ATL 5, SD 4 | Freddie Freeman, 1B | 4 | 2 | 4 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 4.0 | MIL 6, CHC 3 | Ryan Braun, LF | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 4.0 | BOS 4, TB 3 | Craig Kimbrel (S,6) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| BAT | 2.0 | NYY 7, CHW 4 | Aaron Judge, RF | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 2.0 | CLE 3, MIN 1 | Danny Salazar (W,1-1) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
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 Players of the Game. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (’17). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’16-17), the period 2012-2017 (’12-17) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2017 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2016 total (+/-).| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’17 | ’16-17 | ’12-17 | Career | +/- |
| Kimbrel, Craig 2825 | pi cp | bos al | 3.0 | 11.0 | 55.7 | 61.7 | -5.0 |
| Devenski, Chris 3702 | pi mr cp | hou al | 3.0 | 6.7 | 6.7 | 6.7 | -0.7 |
| Judge, Aaron 3767 | rf | nyy al | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 |
| Ray, Robbie 3502 | pi sp | ari nl | 2.0 | 8.7 | 12.7 | 12.7 | -4.7 |
| Griffin, A.J. 3074 | pi sp | tex al | 2.0 | 7.7 | 22.4 | 22.4 | -3.7 |
| Lynn, Lance 2992 | pi sp | stl nl | 1.7 | 1.7 | 57.6 | 57.6 | 1.7 |
| Freeman, Freddie 2887 | 1b | atl nl | 1.5 | 9.0 | 34.7 | 40.2 | -6.0 |
| Salazar, Danny 3223 | pi sp | cle al | 1.0 | 13.5 | 36.3 | 36.3 | -11.5 |
| Braun, Ryan J. 2300 | lf | mil nl | 1.0 | 11.5 | 37.0 | 89.2 | -9.5 |
| Miranda, Ariel 3738 | pi sp | sea al | 1.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | -1.0 |
Royals' Ian Kennedy tops players for Sunday, April 16; Braves' Colon tops NL players
Royals pitcher Ian Kennedy is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Kennedy struck out 10 over eight scoreless innings, allowing two hits and two walks, in the 1-0 win over the Angels. Kennedy picked up a no-decision and did not earn the win or save because when he exited, the game was in a scoreless tie.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of April 16:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 4.7 |
| 2 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 4.0 |
| 3 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 3.4 |
| 4 | Morrison, Logan 2794 | 1b | tb al | 3.2 |
| 5 | Syndergaard, Noah 3472 | pi sp | nym nl | 3.0 |
| 6 | Marte, Starling 3122 | lf cf | pit nl | 3.0 |
| 7 | Vargas, Jason 2055 | pi sp | kc al | 3.0 |
| 8 | Holland, Greg 2906 | pi cp | col nl | 3.0 |
| 9 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | det al | 2.7 |
| 10 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 2.7 |
National League Player of the Day—Braves pitcher Bartolo Colon allowed one hit and one run in seven innings, striking out six, in the 9-2 win over the Padres.
Colon earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day, giving him 151.2 for his career. He ranks 19th among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began, trailing 18th-ranked player Greg Maddux (151.7). (It should be noted that Maddux made his debut in 1986 and had seven 15-plus win seasons before Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995 and so, based on very rough extrapolations, would likely have about 250 career Box-Toppers points if his entire career were tracked.)
National League Batter of the Day—Bryce Harper of the Nationals hit two home runs, including a game-winning, walk-off, three-run homer, in the 6-4 win over the Phillies. Harper also hit a two-run homer and went 3-for-5, driving in five total runs.
American League Batter of the Day—Greg Bird of the Yankees homered, doubled and went 3-for-3, scoring twice and driving in two runs, in the 9-3 win over the Cardinals.
Rankings—Rockies closing pitcher Greg Holland rises to eighth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Sunday.
Holland (1IP 0H 0R 0BB K Sv in the 4-3 win over the Giants) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 3.0 for the season.
Debuts—Two players made their Box-Toppers debut Sunday, the first time in their career they earned Player of the Game honors:
- Adam Frazier of the Pirates (3-R HR 2B 3-4 R 3BI in the 6-1 win over the Cubs) made his Major League debut June 24, 2016, and was playing in his 77th career game. He is the 3,771st player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
- Mitch Haniger of the Mariners (3-R HR 1-3 R 4BI in the 8-7 win over the Rangers) made his Major League debut Aug. 16, 2016, and was playing in his 47th career game. He is the 3,772nd player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Scoring—Kennedy earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Colon earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Harper and Bird each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Sunday’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| 4/16 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 14.0 | `KC 1, LAA 0 | Ian Kennedy | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 10 | |
| NL | 9.0 | ATL 9, SD 2 | Bartolo Colon (W,1-1) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |
| 6.0 | BAL 11, TOR 4 | Dylan Bundy (W,2-1) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | ||
| 5.1 | `MIA 4, NYM 2 | Dan Straily | - | - | - | - | 5.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 | ||
| BAT | 5.0 | WSH 6, PHI 4 | Bryce Harper, RF | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 5.0 | ARI 3, LAD 1 | Taijuan Walker (W,2-1) | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | ||
| BAT | 4.0 | NYY 9, STL 3 | Greg Bird, 1B | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | PIT 6, CHC 1 | Adam Frazier, LF | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | SEA 8, TEX 7 | Mitch Haniger, RF | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | DET 4, CLE 1 | Alex Avila, C | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | MIL 4, CIN 2 | Neftali Feliz (S,4) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | BOS 7, TB 5 | Craig Kimbrel (S,5) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | CHW 3, MIN 1 (F/10) | Nate Jones (W,1-0) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | COL 4, SF 3 | Greg Holland (S,7) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
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 Players of the Game. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (’17). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’16-17), the period 2012-2017 (’12-17) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2017 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2016 total (+/-).| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’17 | ’16-17 | ’12-17 | Career | +/- |
| Holland, Greg 2906 | pi cp | col nl | 3.0 | 3.0 | 33.0 | 36.0 | 3.0 |
| Colon, Bartolo | pi sp | atl nl | 2.7 | 11.1 | 52.0 | 151.2 | -5.7 |
| Kennedy, Ian 2723 | pi sp | kc al | 2.0 | 12.0 | 43.1 | 68.5 | -8.0 |
| Kimbrel, Craig 2825 | pi cp | bos al | 2.0 | 10.0 | 54.7 | 60.7 | -6.0 |
| Bundy, Dylan 3655 | pi sp | bal al | 2.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | -4.0 |
| Harper, Bryce 3011 | rf | dc nl | 1.5 | 4.5 | 28.9 | 28.9 | -1.5 |
| Bird, Greg 3562 | 1b | nyy al | 1.5 | 1.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 1.5 |
| Walker, Taijuan 3453 | pi sp | ari nl | 1.0 | 8.7 | 22.4 | 22.4 | -6.7 |
| Straily, Dan 3080 | pi sp | fla nl | 1.0 | 8.0 | 18.7 | 18.7 | -6.0 |
| Jones, Nate 3125 | pi mr | chi al | 1.0 | 5.0 | 13.0 | 13.0 | -3.0 |
| Feliz, Neftali 2651 | pi cp mr | mil nl | 1.0 | 2.0 | 8.0 | 19.7 | 0.0 |
| Avila, Alex 2642 | ca | det al | 1.0 | 2.0 | 8.5 | 18.0 | 0.0 |
| Frazier, Adam 3771 | lf | pit nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Haniger, MItch 3772 | rf | sea al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
Twins' Ervin Santana tops players for Saturday, April 15, rises to lead Box-Toppers rankings
Twins pitcher Ervin Santana is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to take the lead in season Box-Toppers player rankings.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of April 15:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 4.7 |
| 2 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 4.0 |
| 3 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 3.4 |
| 4 | Morrison, Logan 2794 | 1b | tb al | 3.2 |
| 5 | Syndergaard, Noah 3472 | pi sp | nym nl | 3.0 |
| 6 | Marte, Starling 3122 | lf cf | pit nl | 3.0 |
| 7 | Vargas, Jason 2055 | pi sp | kc al | 3.0 |
| 8 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | det al | 2.7 |
| 9 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 2.7 |
| 10 | Garcia, Avisail 3256 | rf | chi al | 2.5 |
Also Saturday, Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia rises to fifth place on the “all-time” Box-Toppers points list (since record keeping began in 1995), moving ahead of Alex Rodriguez.
Player of the Day—Santana pitched a one-hit shutout, striking out eight and walking one, in the 6-0 win over the White Sox.
Santana earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 4.7 for the season and rising to first place in Box-Toppers season player rankings. He passes previous leader, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (4.0).
Santana also now has 102.0 career Box-Toppers points, rising to 69th place among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. With his points Saturday, he passes six players on the “all-time” list: Larry Walker (100.1), Jeff Bagwell (100.4), Paul Konerko (100.7), Jason Schmidt (101.2), Mark Teixiera (101.3) and Tim Wakefield (101.4). Santana now trails 68th-ranked player Ken Griffey Jr. (102.2).
National League Player of the Day—Rockies pitcher Tyler Chatwood pitched a two-hit shutout, striking out four and walking one, in the 5-0 win over the Giants.
American League Batter of the Day—Jose Ramirez of the Indians hit a pair of three-run homers and went 4-for-4, scoring three times and driving in six, in the 13-6 win over the Tigers.
National League Batter of the Day—Starling Marte of the Pirates homered and went 2-for-4, scoring twice and driving in two runs, in the 8-7 win over the Cubs.
Marte earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being NL Batter of the Day, giving him 3.0 for the season and rises to sixth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings, first among NL batters.
All-time leaders
Here are Box-Toppers top 20 players since record keeping began in 1995:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Randy Johnson | pi sp | retired | 278.8 |
| 2 | Pedro Martinez | pi sp | retired | 244.8 |
| 3 | Curt Schilling | pi sp | retired | 194.1 |
| 4 | Clayton Kershaw | pi sp | lad nl | 187.7 |
| 5 | CC Sabathia | pi sp | nyy al | 187.0 |
| 6 | Alex Rodriguez | dh | released | 187.0 |
| 7 | Albert Pujols | 1b dh | ana al | 182.3 |
| 8 | Roy Halladay | pi sp | retired | 170.7 |
| 9 | Felix Hernandez | pi sp | sea al | 169.7 |
| 10 | Manny Ramirez | lf dh | retired | 167.2 |
| 11 | Johan Santana | pi sp | free agent | 166.6 |
| 12 | Roger Clemens | pi sp | retired | 164.8 |
| 13 | John Smoltz | pi sp | retired | 160.9 |
| 14 | Zack Greinke | pi sp | ari nl | 157.1 |
| 15 | Tim Hudson | pi sp | retired | 157.0 |
| 16 | Mike Mussina | pi sp | retired | 155.6 |
| 17 | Barry Bonds | lf | retired | 153.2 |
| 18 | Greg Maddux | pi sp | retired | 151.7 |
| 19 | Bartolo Colon | pi sp | atl nl | 149.5 |
| 20 | Chipper Jones | 3b | retired | 149.0 |
List of top 100 players since 1995 at the close of the 2016 season.
Notable—Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia rises to fifth place in Box-Toppers points since 1995 (when tracking began) after earning Player of the Game honors Saturday. Santana (7.1IP 3H R BB 6K W in the 3-2 win over the Cardinals) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 187.0 for his career. With the point, he passes former teammate Alex Rodriguez, who also has 187.0 career points, but Sabathia ranks ahead because he has more 2017 points—2.0 vs. 0.0.
Sabathia now trails fourth-ranked player on the “all-time” list, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (187.7), who only passed Sabathia on Friday. Sabathia had briefly been the highest-ranked active player in career Box-Toppers points until being passed by Kershaw Friday. He now only trails Kershaw by 0.7 points.
In two days, Rodriguez has moved from fourth place to sixth place on the “all-time” list after being passed by Kershaw on Friday and Sabathia on Saturday. He had been in fourth place since April 2, 2011.
Rankings—Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale rises to ninth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Saturday. Sale (7IP 3H R 3BB 12K W in the 2-1 win over the Rays) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 2.7 for the season.
For the first time this season, all players in the season top 10 list have earned Player of the Game honors more than once in 2017.
Debut—Cesar Hernandez of the Phillies made his Box-Toppers debut Saturday, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Hernandez (HR 2-4 2R 2BI in the 4-2 win over the Nationals) made his Major League debut May 29, 2013, and was playing in his 393rd career game. He is the 3,770th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Hernandez and Marte both had Box-Toppers game scores Saturday of +2.0, but Marte won NL Batter of the Day honors over Hernandez on a tiebreaker—he had one stolen base in his game and Hernandez had none.
Scoring—Santana earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Chatwood earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Ramirez and Marte each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Saturday’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| 4/15 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 15.0 | MIN 6, CHW 0 | Ervin Santana (W,3-0) | - | - | - | - | 9.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | |
| 14.0 | SEA 5, TEX 0 | James Paxton (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | ||
| 11.0 | BOS 2, TB 1 | Chris Sale (W,1-1) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 12 | ||
| NL | 10.0 | COL 5, SF 0 | Tyler Chatwood (W,1-2) | - | - | - | - | 9.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | |
| BAT | 9.0 | CLE 13, DET 6 | Jose Ramirez, 2B | 4 | 3 | 4 | 6 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 8.0 | `TOR 2, BAL 1 | Marco Estrada | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 | ||
| 7.1 | NYY 3, STL 2 | CC Sabathia (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 7.1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | ||
| 6.1 | LAD 8, ARI 4 | Alex Wood (W,1-0) | - | - | - | - | 3.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 3.0 | HOU 10, OAK 6 | Will Harris (W,1-0) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | ATL 4, SD 2 | Jim Johnson (S,3) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | MIA 5, NYM 4 | AJ Ramos (S,2) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.2 | KC 3, LAA 2 | Joakim Soria (W,1-0; BS,1) | - | - | - | - | 1.2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | ||
| BAT | 2.0 | PIT 8, CHC 7 | Starling Marte, CF | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 2.0 | PHI 4, WSH 2 | Cesar Hernandez, 2B | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | CIN 7, MIL 5 | Zack Cozart, SS | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
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 Players of the Game. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (’17). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’16-17), the period 2012-2017 (’12-17) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2017 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2016 total (+/-).| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’17 | ’16-17 | ’12-17 | Career | +/- |
| Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 4.7 | 8.7 | 41.5 | 102.0 | 0.7 |
| Marte, Starling 3122 | lf cf | pit nl | 3.0 | 5.5 | 15.0 | 15.0 | 0.5 |
| Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 2.7 | 16.1 | 84.1 | 89.1 | -10.7 |
| Sabathia, C.C. 1492 | pi sp | nyy al | 2.0 | 8.0 | 34.5 | 187.0 | -4.0 |
| Paxton, James 3280 | pi sp | sea al | 2.0 | 6.4 | 13.1 | 13.1 | -2.4 |
| Chatwood, Tyler 2856 | pi sp | col nl | 1.7 | 8.7 | 15.4 | 18.4 | -5.3 |
| Ramirez, Jose 3436 | 3b | cle al | 1.5 | 3.0 | 6.5 | 6.5 | 0.0 |
| Estrada, Marco 2847 | pi sp | tor al | 1.0 | 12.0 | 41.1 | 44.1 | -10.0 |
| Johnson, Jim 2417 | pi cp | atl nl | 1.0 | 5.0 | 16.0 | 22.7 | -3.0 |
| Ramos, A.J. 3210 | pi cp | fla nl | 1.0 | 3.0 | 13.0 | 13.0 | -1.0 |
| Cozart, Zack 3012 | ss | cin nl | 1.0 | 3.0 | 12.0 | 12.0 | -1.0 |
| Wood, Alex 3246 | pi mr sp | lad nl | 1.0 | 2.0 | 20.4 | 20.4 | 0.0 |
| Soria, Joakim 2258 | pi mr cp | kc al | 1.0 | 2.0 | 10.7 | 46.7 | 0.0 |
| Harris, Will 3093 | pi mr cp | hou al | 1.0 | 2.0 | 7.7 | 7.7 | 0.0 |
| Hernandez, Cesar 3770 | 2b | phi nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
Dodgers' Kershaw tops players for Friday, April 14, rising in 3 Box-Toppers player rankings
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw is Friday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises in three significant Box-Toppers player rankings:
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of April 14:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 4.0 |
| 2 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 3.4 |
| 3 | Morrison, Logan 2794 | 1b | tb al | 3.2 |
| 4 | Syndergaard, Noah 3472 | pi sp | nym nl | 3.0 |
| 5 | Vargas, Jason 2055 | pi sp | kc al | 3.0 |
| 6 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | det al | 2.7 |
| 7 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 2.7 |
| 8 | Garcia, Avisail 3256 | rf | chi al | 2.5 |
| 9 | Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | chi nl | 2.0 |
| 10 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 2.0 |
- He takes the overall season Box-Toppers points lead (earning 2.0 points, giving him 4.0 for the season), passing previous leader Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard (3.0).
- He takes the lead in career Box-Toppers points among active players with 187.7, passing previous leader Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia (186.0).
- He rises to fourth place among all players in Box-Toppers points since tracking began in 1995. Kershaw’s 187.7 career points puts him past Alex Rodriguez (187.0).
Kershaw struck out eight over 8 1/3 innings, allowing one run and four hits, in the 7-1 win over the Diamondbacks.
It is the second time this season Kershaw has led players in season Box-Toppers points, also leading from April 3 to 8. It is also the second time this season Kershaw has led active players in career Box-Toppers points. He briefly passed Sabathia for the lead on April 3 before Sabathia regained the lead the next day.
Kershaw now trails the third-place player on the “all-time” Box-Toppers points list, Curt Schilling (194.1). With his 2.0 points Friday, he actually moved up two spots on the "all-time" list, passing both Sabathia and Rodriguez.
American League Player of the Day—Astros pitcher Dallas Keuchel struck out seven over seven innings, allowing one run and four hits, in the 7-2 win over the Athletics.
All-time leaders
Here are Box-Toppers top 20 players since record keeping began in 1995:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Randy Johnson | pi sp | retired | 278.8 |
| 2 | Pedro Martinez | pi sp | retired | 244.8 |
| 3 | Curt Schilling | pi sp | retired | 194.1 |
| 4 | Clayton Kershaw | pi sp | lad nl | 187.7 |
| 5 | Alex Rodriguez | dh | released | 187.0 |
| 6 | CC Sabathia | pi sp | nyy al | 186.0 |
| 7 | Albert Pujols | 1b dh | ana al | 182.3 |
| 8 | Roy Halladay | pi sp | retired | 170.7 |
| 9 | Felix Hernandez | pi sp | sea al | 169.7 |
| 10 | Manny Ramirez | lf dh | retired | 167.2 |
| 11 | Johan Santana | pi sp | free agent | 166.6 |
| 12 | Roger Clemens | pi sp | retired | 164.8 |
| 13 | John Smoltz | pi sp | retired | 160.9 |
| 14 | Zack Greinke | pi sp | ari nl | 157.1 |
| 15 | Tim Hudson | pi sp | retired | 157.0 |
| 16 | Mike Mussina | pi sp | retired | 155.6 |
| 17 | Barry Bonds | lf | retired | 153.2 |
| 18 | Greg Maddux | pi sp | retired | 151.7 |
| 19 | Bartolo Colon | pi sp | atl nl | 149.5 |
| 20 | Chipper Jones | 3b | retired | 149.0 |
List of top 100 players since 1995 at the close of the 2016 season.
Keuchel earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day, giving him 3.4 for the season and rising to second place in Box-Toppers season player rankings, first among AL players.
Keuchel had a Box-Toppers game score of +6.0, tied with Royals pitcher Danny Duffy, who was Player of the Game in the 7-1 win over the Angels (7IP 3H R 2BB 6K W). But Keuchel won the tiebreaker to earn AL Player of the Day honors because he had more strikeouts—seven vs. six.
National League Batter of the Day—Manny Pina of the Brewers hit two doubles and went 4-for-5, scoring twice and driving in two runs, in the 10-4 win over the Reds.
This was Pina’s Box-Toppers debut, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Pina made his Major League debut Aug. 3, 2011, and was playing in his 45th career game. He is the 3,679th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
American League Batter of the Day—Logan Morrison of the Rays hit a grand slam and doubled, going 2-for-5, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 10-5 win over the Red Sox.
Morrison earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being AL Batter of the Day, giving him 3.2 for the season, rising to third place in Box-Toppers season player rankings, first among AL batters.
Streak—Two players extended their streaks of 10 or more consecutive seasons earning Box-Toppers points after both earned Player of the Game honors Friday:
- Mariners pitcher Felix Hernandez has now earned Box-Toppers points for 13 straight seasons after earning Player of the Game honors in the 2-1 win over the Rangers (7.1IP 6H R 0BB 3K W). Hernandez earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2005 with the Mariners and has 169.7 career points, ninth among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. He trails eighth-place player Roy Halladay (170.7). Hernandez’s best season was 2014 with the Mariners when he had 20.8 Box-Toppers points, third among AL pitchers. Hernandez is the highest-ranked player in Box-Toppers career points (ranked ninth) who has never led his league category (AL pitching) in Box-Toppers points during a season.
- Hunter Pence of the Giants has now earned Box-Toppers points for 11 straight seasons after earning Player of the Game honors in the 8-2 win over the Rockies (3-4 R 2BI). Pence earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2007 with the Astros and has 53.2 career points, eighth among active NL outfielders. His best season was 2008 with the Astros, when he had 8.2 points, seventh among NL outfielders.
Scoring—Kershaw earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Keuchel earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Pina and Morrison 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| 4/14 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 9.1 | LAD 7, ARI 1 | Clayton Kershaw (W,2-1) | - | - | - | - | 8.1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | |
| AL | 6.0 | HOU 7, OAK 2 | Dallas Keuchel (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | |
| 6.0 | KC 7, LAA 1 | Danny Duffy (W,2-0) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | ||
| 5.0 | DET 7, CLE 6 | Daniel Norris (W,1-0) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 4.0 | `WSH 3, PHI 2 (F/10) | Stephen Strasburg | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 | ||
| BAT | 3.0 | MIL 10, CIN 4 | Manny Pina, C | 5 | 2 | 4 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| BAT | 3.0 | TB 10, BOS 5 | Logan Morrison, 1B | 5 | 2 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | BAL 6, TOR 4 | Wade Miley (W,1-0) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 8 | ||
| 3.0 | CHW 2, MIN 1 | David Robertson (S,2) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.1 | SEA 2, TEX 1 | Felix Hernandez (W,1-1) | - | - | - | - | 7.1 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 2.0 | PIT 4, CHC 2 | David Freese, 3B | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | SF 8, COL 2 | Hunter Pence, RF | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | ATL 5, SD 2 | Ender Inciarte, CF | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | MIA 3, NYM 2 | Miguel Rojas, SS-3B | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | NYY 4, STL 3 | Starlin Castro, 2B | 4 | 1 | 2 | 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 Players of the Game. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (’17). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’16-17), the period 2012-2017 (’12-17) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2017 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2016 total (+/-).| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’17 | ’16-17 | ’12-17 | Career | +/- |
| Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 4.0 | 28.4 | 128.1 | 187.7 | -20.4 |
| Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 3.4 | 10.4 | 46.2 | 46.2 | -3.6 |
| Morrison, Logan 2794 | 1b | tb al | 3.2 | 5.2 | 15.2 | 20.7 | 1.2 |
| Inciarte, Ender 3360 | cf | atl nl | 2.0 | 4.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 0.0 |
| Pina, Manny 3769 | ca | mil nl | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 1.0 | 16.1 | 75.2 | 83.9 | -14.1 |
| Duffy, Danny 2915 | pi sp | kc al | 1.0 | 11.7 | 29.7 | 30.7 | -9.7 |
| Castro, Starlin 2767 | 2b | nyy al | 1.0 | 8.0 | 16.5 | 26.5 | -6.0 |
| Hernandez, Felix 2064 | pi sp | sea al | 1.0 | 7.0 | 80.7 | 169.7 | -5.0 |
| Miley, Wade 3006 | pi sp | bal al | 1.0 | 7.0 | 37.4 | 37.4 | -5.0 |
| Robertson, David 2774 | pi cp | chi al | 1.0 | 6.0 | 23.0 | 27.0 | -4.0 |
| Pence, Hunter 2287 | rf | sf nl | 1.0 | 4.5 | 20.5 | 53.2 | -2.5 |
| Norris, Daniel 3548 | pi sp | det al | 1.0 | 3.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | -1.0 |
| Freese, David 2710 | 3b | pit nl | 1.0 | 3.0 | 19.2 | 25.2 | -1.0 |
| Rojas, Miguel 3642 | ss 3b | fla nl | 1.0 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | -0.5 |
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