Mets pitcher Steven Matz is Box-Toppers spring training Player of the Day for Friday.
Matz struck out six over five scoreless innings, allowing no hits, in the 8-1 win over the Cubs. Matz had 3.5 Box-Toppers points in 2015 with the Mets.
American League Player of the Day—Angels pitcher Hector Santiago pitched five scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out four, in the 5-1 win over the Dodgers. Santiago had 8.0 Box-Toppers points in 2015 with the Angels.
American League Batter of the Day—Anthony Gose of the Tigers hit a three-run homer and went 3-for-3, scoring twice, in the 9-4 win over the Rays. Gose has played in 342 regular season Major League games, but has yet to earn Player of the Game honors and so has no career Box-Toppers points.
National League Batter of the Day—Rickie Weeks of the Diamondbacks doubled and went 2-for-3, driving in two runs, in the 7-4 win over the Royals. Weeks had 1.0 Box-Toppers point in 2015 with the Mariners. He has 36.1 career Box-Toppers points since 2005. His best year was 2007 with the Brewers when he had 6.2 points.
Scoring—No Box-Toppers points are awarded in spring training games, but if it were the regular season, Matz would earn 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Santiago would earn 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Gose and Weeks would each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s top Batter of the Day. All of Friday’s other Players of the Game (listed in the chart below) would earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point.
Note—Fourteen spring training games were scheduled for Thursday—12 are listed below. Two games are not included because they ended in ties (Rays vs. Braves and Rockies vs. Mariners).
About Box-Toppers—Box-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. In regular season games, players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.
Top player from each game
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score
| 4/1 | Score | Team | Player | AB | R | H | BI | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 9.0 | Mets | Steven Matz (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | |
| AL | 6.0 | Angels | Héctor Santiago (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
| BAT | 5.0 | Tigers | Anthony Gose CF | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 5.0 | Giants | Jake Peavy (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | ||
| 4.2 | Indians | Cody Anderson (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||
| 4.0 | Astros | Josh Fields (SV, 1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 3.0 | Orioles | Garabez Rosa 2B | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Yankees | Lane Adams PH-DH | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Nationals | Jonathan Papelbon (SV, 1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | Red Sox | Luis Ysla (SV, 1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 2.0 | White Sox | Nate Jones (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| BAT | 1.0 | Dbacks | Rickie Weeks DH | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - |