Marlins’ Jose Urena tops players for Sunday, Aug. 19; White Sox’ Santiago tops AL players

Marlins pitcher Jose Urena is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

Urena pitched a complete game, allowing one run, two hits, two walks and striking out four, in the 12-1 win over the Nationals.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2018 season through the games of Aug. 19:  
 

Player Pos Team BTP
1 Scherzer, Max 2588 pi sp dc nl 21.1
2 Sale, Chris 2806 pi sp bos al 19.1
3 Nola, Aaron 3569 pi sp phi nl 17.4
4 Severino, Luis 3567 pi sp nyy al 16.7
5 Berrios, Jose 3791 pi sp min al 16.1
6 Snell, Blake 3688 pi sp tb al 16.1
7 Paxton, James 3280 pi sp sea al 16.0
7 Cole, Gerrit 3232 pi sp hou al 16.0
9 Verlander, Justin 2112 pi sp hou al 15.4
10 Corbin, Patrick 3027 pi sp ari nl 15.0
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About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations

Urena earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 6.0 for the season, 37th among National League pitchers.

American League Player of the Day—White Sox pitcher Hector Santiago struck out six over four scoreless innings in middle relief, allowing two hits and two walks, in the 7-6 win over the Royals.

American League Batter of the Day—Rougned Odor of the Rangers homered and went 2-for-3, scoring once and driving in four runs, in the 4-2 win over the Angels.

National League Batter of the Day—Kevin Plawecki of the Mets went 2-for-3, scoring three times and driving in one run, in the 8-2 win over the Phillies.

Notable—Brewers pitcher Jhoulys Chacin has the most 2018 Box-Toppers points among the 15 who earned Player of the Game honors Sunday.

Chacin (6IP 4H 0R 0BB 3K W in the 2-1 win over the Cardinals) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 11.7 for the season, 17th in season player rankings and sixth among NL pitchers.

Also notable—Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw now has 212.8 career Box-Toppers points—extending his lead among active players—after earning Player of the Game honors Sunday.

Kershaw (7IP 4H R BB 7K W in the 12-1 win over the Mariners) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 6.0 for the season, 88th among all players and 35th among NL pitchers. Kershaw has a streak of seven straight seasons earning 20 or more points and finishing among the top three players in Box-Toppers season player rankings. Those streaks seem unlikely to continue in 2018.

Kershaw just missed out on earning overall Player of the Day honors Sunday. His Box-Toppers game score of +7.0 was tied for the day’s best with Jose Urena, but Urena won Player of the Day on a tiebreaker because he had more innings pitched—nine vs. seven.

Kershaw’s 212.8 career Box-Toppers points ranks third among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. He trails second-ranked Pedro Martinez (244.8). Kershaw leads active players in career points, ahead of second-place player, Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia (198.7).

Debut—Rays pitcher Jalen Beeks made his Box-Toppers debut Sunday with his first career Player of the Game honor.

Beeks (4IP H 0R 2BB 3K W in the 2-0 win over the Red Sox) made his Major League debut June 7 and was playing in his seventh career game.

Scoring—Urena earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Santiago earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Odor and Plawecki 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.

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Top player from each game

Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score (BTG)

8/19 BTG Game Player AB R H BI IP H R ER BB K
MLB +7.0 MIA 12, WSH 1 Jose Urena (W, 4‑12) 9.0 2 1 1 2 4
+7.0 LAD 12, SEA 1 Clayton Kershaw (W, 6‑5) 7.0 4 1 1 1 7
AL +6.0 CHW 7, KC 6 Hector Santiago (W, 5‑3) 4.0 2 0 0 2 6
+5.2 CIN 11, SF 4 Luis Castillo (W, 7‑10) 6.2 6 3 1 0 9
+5.0 MIL 2, STL 1 Jhoulys Chacin (W, 13‑4) 6.0 4 0 0 0 3
+5.0 CLE 8, BAL 0 Mike Clevinger (W, 9‑7) 6.0 7 0 0 1 7
BAT +4.0 TEX 4, LAA 2 Rougned Odor 2B 3 1 2 4
+4.0 TB 2, BOS 0 Jalen Beeks (W, 2‑1) 4.0 1 0 0 2 3
+4.0 `PIT 2, CHC 1 (F/11) Jameson Taillon 6.0 5 1 1 3 8
+3.0 HOU 9, OAK 4 Martin Maldonado C 4 3 3 1
BAT +3.0 NYM 8, PHI 2 Kevin Plawecki C 3 3 2 1
+3.0 COL 4, ATL 2 Wade Davis (S, 35) 1.0 1 0 0 0 3
+2.0 NYY 10, TOR 2 Greg Bird 1B 4 1 1 4
+2.0 ARI 4, SD 3 Daniel Descalso 2B 2 2 1 1
+1.0 MIN 5, DET 4 Eddie Rosario LF 3 1 1 2
MLB—Overall Box-Toppers Player of the Day, worth 2.0 total Box-Toppers points.
AL—Overall American League Player of the Day, worth 1.7 total Box-Toppers points.
NL—Overall National League Player of the Day, worth 1.7 total Box-Toppers points.
BAT—Top AL or NL Batter of the Day, worth 1.5 total Box-Toppers points.
All other players listed here earn Player of the Game honors, worth 1.0 Box-Toppers point.
` Pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save.

Box-Toppers point totals of the day’s top players

Here are Box-Toppers point totals of each of the Player of the Game winners. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (’18). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’17-18), the period 2013-2018 (’13-18) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2018 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2017 total (+/-).

Player of the Game Pos Team ’18 ’17‑18 ’13‑18 Career +/‑
Chacin, Jhoulys 2711 pi sp mil nl 11.7 23.1 34.5 50.9 +0.3
Clevinger, Mike 3707 pi sp cle al 8.0 19.4 22.4 22.4 -3.4
Odor, Rougned 3336 2b tex al 7.5 16.2 27.2 27.2 -1.2
Rosario, Eddie 3542 lf min al 7.5 13.7 18.2 18.2 +1.3
Taillon, Jameson 3658 pi sp pit nl 7.4 16.4 21.4 21.4 -1.6
Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 6.0 29.1 132.4 212.8 -17.1
Urena, Jose 3492 pi sp fla nl 6.0 12.0 15.7 15.7 0.0
Castillo, Luis Miguel 3840 pi sp cin nl 5.0 13.4 13.4 13.4 -3.4
Davis, Wade 2681 pi cp col nl 5.0 10.0 28.0 36.0 0.0
Descalso, Daniel 2855 3b 2b lf ari nl 5.0 6.0 12.7 16.2 +4.0
Santiago, Hector 3109 pi cp sp chi al 3.4 3.4 32.2 35.2 +3.4
Maldonado, Martin 3082 ca hou al 3.0 4.0 8.5 11.5 +2.0
Plawecki, Kevin 3919 ca nym nl 1.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 +0.5
Bird, Greg 3562 1b nyy al 1.0 4.5 7.5 7.5 -2.5
Beeks, Jalen 4047 pi mr tb al 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 +1.0
What are those numbers after players' names?
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations