White Sox’ Dane Dunning tops players for Sunday, Aug. 30; Cardinals’ Wainwright tops NL players

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White Sox pitcher Dane Dunning is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 in Box-Toppers season player rankings for 2020. Players are ranked by Box-Toppers points (BTP) earned this season through Sunday, Aug. 30.

Player Pos Team BTP
1 Bieber, Shane 4005 pi sp cle al 8.7
2 Darvish, Yu 3003 pi sp chi nl 6.7
3 Bauer, Trevor 3065 pi sp cin nl 6.0
4 Giolito, Lucas 3900 pi sp chi al 6.0
5 Bundy, Dylan 3655 pi sp ana al 6.0
6 deGrom, Jacob 3343 pi sp nym nl 5.7
7 Lynn, Lance 2992 pi sp tex al 5.7
8 Fried, Max 4011 pi sp atl nl 5.7
9 Maeda, Kenta 3609 pi sp min al 5.4
10 Tucker, Kyle 4277 lf hou al 5.0
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Dunning struck out seven over five scoreless and hitless innings, allowing one walk, in the 5-2, 10-inning win over the Royals. Dunning did not earn the win, picking up a no-decision, because the Royals tied the game after he exited.

Dunning earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, making his Box-Toppers debut with his first career Player of the Game honor. Dunning made his Major League debut Aug. 19 and was playing in his second career game.

National League Player of the Day—Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright pitched a complete game, striking out nine, allowing two runs, four hits and two walks, in the 7-2 win over the Indians.

Wainwright earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day, giving him 129.3 career points, 35th among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. With his points Sunday, he passes four players on the “all-time” list—A.J. Burnett (127.8), Jered Weaver (127.8), Vladimir Guerrero (128.3) and Trevor Hoffman (128.4). Wainwright now trails 34th-ranked player, Red Sox pitcher David Price (131.0). Wainwright ranks 13th among active players in career points.

Wainwright has 2.7 Box-Toppers points for the season, 19th among NL pitchers.

American League Batter of the Day—Rafael Devers of the Red Sox hit two home runs and went 4-for-4, scoring three times and driving in four runs, in the 9-5 win over the Nationals.

National League Batter of the Day—Kyle Schwarber of the Cubs hit two home runs, including a grand slam, in the 10-1 win over the Reds. Schwarber went 2-for-5, scoring twice and driving in five runs.

Notable—Randal Grichuk of the Blue Jays is the highest-ranked player in Box-Toppers season player rankings among the 15 who earned Player of the Game honors Sunday.

Grichuk (2B 1-3 2R BI in the 6-5 win over the Orioles) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 3.0 for the season, 41st among all players and 10th among AL batters.

Also notable—Giants pitcher Johnny Cueto now has 106.8 career Box-Toppers points after earning Player of the Game honors Sunday.

Cueto (6.2IP 3H R 3BB 6K ND in the 4-1 win over the Diamondbacks) rises to 67th place among all players in career points since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. With the 1.0 point he earned Sunday, he passes three players on the “all-time” list—Frank Thomas (106.2), Francisco Liriano (106.2) and James Shields (106.4). He trails 66th-ranked Lance Berkman (108.1). He ranks 17th among active players in career points.

His 2.0 Box-Toppers points for 2020 ranks 29th among NL pitchers.

Debut—In addition to Dunning, Yankees pitcher Deivi Garcia also made his Box-Toppers debut Sunday with his first career Player of the Game honor.

Garcia (6IP 4H R 0ER 0BB 6K ND in the 5-2, eight-inning win over the Mets) was also making his Major League debut.

Scoring—Dunning earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Wainwright earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Devers and Schwarber 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)

8/30 BTG Game Player AB R H BI IP H R ER BB K
MLB +11.0 `CHW 5, KC 2 (F/10) Dane Dunning 5.0 0 0 0 1 7
NL +8.0 STL 7, CLE 2 Adam Wainwright, (W 3‑0) 9.0 4 2 2 2 9
+7.0 `SEA 2, LAA 1 (F/10) Justin Dunn 6.0 1 0 0 4 6
+7.0 `NYY 5, NYM 2 (F/8) Deivi García 6.0 4 1 0 0 6
BAT +6.0 BOS 9, WSH 5 Rafael Devers, 3B 4 3 4 3
+6.0 SD 13, COL 2 Chris Paddack, (W 3‑3) 6.0 5 2 0 1 8
+5.2 ATL 12, PHI 1 A.J. Minter, (W 1‑0) 1.2 0 0 0 0 4
+4.2 DET 3, MIN 2 Tyler Alexander, (W 2‑1) 3.2 2 0 0 0 3
+4.2 `SF 4, ARI 1 Johnny Cueto 6.2 3 1 1 3 6
BAT +4.0 CHC 10, CIN 1 Kyle Schwarber, LF 5 2 2 5
+3.0 TB 12, MIA 7 Kevin Kiermaier, CF 2 2 1 2
+3.0 NYY 8, NYM 7 (F/8) Chad Green, (W 3‑2) 1.0 0 0 0 1 3
+3.0 `PIT 5, MIL 1 Steven Brault 3.0 3 1 0 1 5
+2.0 LAD 7, TEX 2 Will Smith, C 3 3 1 1
+1.0 TOR 6, BAL 5 Randal Grichuk, CF 3 2 1 1
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 (’20). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’19-20), the period 2015-2020 (’15-20) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2020 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2019 total (+/-).

Player of the Game Pos Team ’20 ’19‑20 ’15‑20 Career +/-
Grichuk, Randal 3474 cf tor al 3.0 8.7 29.9 29.9 ‑2.7
Dunn, Justin 4267 pi sp sea al 3.0 4.0 4.0 4.0 +2.0
Wainwright, Adam 2150 pi sp stl nl 2.7 10.1 30.5 129.3 ‑4.7
Paddack, Chris 4093 pi sp sd nl 2.0 17.8 17.8 17.8 ‑13.8
Alexander, Tyler 4196 pi mr sp det al 2.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 ‑1.0
Cueto, Johnny 2400 pi sp sf nl 2.0 3.0 36.2 106.8 +1.0
Green, Chad 3675 pi mr cp nyy al 2.0 3.0 10.0 10.0 +1.0
Dunning, Dane 4317 pi sp chi al 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 +2.0
Devers, Rafael 4038 3b bos al 1.5 11.0 13.5 13.5 ‑8.0
Schwarber, Kyle 3536 lf chi nl 1.5 6.5 20.0 20.0 ‑3.5
Kiermaier, Kevin 3373 cf tb al 1.0 7.0 10.0 12.5 ‑5.0
Brault, Steven 3911 pi sp mr pit nl 1.0 4.0 7.0 7.0 ‑2.0
Smith, Will (William Dills) 4175 ca lad nl 1.0 4.0 4.0 4.0 ‑2.0
Minter, A.J. 3946 pi mr cp atl nl 1.0 3.0 8.0 8.0 ‑1.0
Garcia, Deivi 4318 pi sp nyy al 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 +1.0
What are those numbers after players' names?
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations