Twins’ Ober tops players for Tuesday, Sept. 26; Padres’ Lugo tops NL players

Twins pitcher Bailey Ober is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

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▪️ Box-Toppers Player of the Game winners.
▪️ Box-Toppers points of the day’s top players.
▪️ Top 10 players in 2023 Box-Toppers points.
▪️ A B-T look at upcoming pitching matchups.
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Twins pitcher Bailey Ober is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

Ober struck out eight over five scoreless innings, allowing two hits and no walks, in the 11-3 win over the Athletics.

Ober earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 8.7 for the season, 63rd among all players and 34th among American League pitchers.

National League Player of the Day

Padres pitcher Seth Lugo struck out seven over 8 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing three hits and three walks, in the 4-0 win over the Giants.

Lugo earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day, giving him 6.4 for the season, 38th among NL pitchers.

National League Player of the Day is Padres pitcher Seth Lugo.

National League Batter of the Day

Christian Walker of the Diamondbacks hit two home runs, tripled and went 3-for-5, scoring three times and driving in six runs, in the 15-4 win over the White Sox.

Walker earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being NL Batter of the Day, giving him 6.0 for the season, 21st among NL batters.

National League Batter of the Day is Christian Walker of the Diamondbacks.

American League Batter of the Day

Manuel Margot of the Rays went 4-for-4, scoring twice and driving in two runs, in the 9-7 win over the Red Sox.

American League Batter of the Day is Manuel Margot of the Rays.

Notable

Three pitchers with more than 10 Box-Toppers points earned Player of the Game honors Tuesday:

Orioles pitcher Kyle Bradish is Box-Toppers Player of the Game in Tuesday’s win over the Nationals.

Orioles pitcher Kyle Bradish (8IP 3H 0R 2BB 4K W in the 1-0 win over the Nationals) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 14.0 for the season, 13th among all players and seventh among AL pitchers.

Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola is Box-Toppers Player of the Game in Tuesday’s win over the Pirates.

Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola (6.2IP 4H R 0BB 8K ND in the 3-2, 10-inning win over the Pirates) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers points giving him 12.0 for the season, 23rd among all players and 12th among NL pitchers.

He also now has 101.7 career Box-Toppers points, 82nd-most among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. With his 1.0 point Tuesday, he passes four players on the “all-time” career points list—Matt Holliday (100.8), Jason Schmidt (101.2), Mark Teixeira (101.3) and Tim Wakefield (101.4) and now trails 81st-ranked Ken Griffey Jr. (102.2.) (Griffey would have a projected 140 career points if his entire career from 1989 were tracked.) Nola ranks 17th among active players in career points, ninth among active NL pitchers.

Mariners pitcher George Kirby is Box-Toppers Player of the Game in Tuesday’s win over the Astros.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 in Box-Toppers season player rankings for 2023. Players are ranked by Box-Toppers points (BTP) earned this season through Tuesday, Sept. 26.

Player Pos Team BTP
1 Strider, Spencer 4626 pi sp atl nl 21.1
2 Ohtani, Shohei 3933 pi sp dh ana al 19.4
3 Gausman, Kevin 3191 pi sp tor al 18.7
4 Bassitt, Chris 3413 pi sp tor al 18.1
5 Luzardo, Jesus 4282 pi sp fla nl 17.8
6 Peralta, Freddy 3965 pi sp mil nl 17.7
7 Gallen, Zac 4171 pi sp ari nl 16.7
8 Castillo, Luis Miguel 3840 pi sp sea al 16.1
9 Scherzer, Max 2588 pi sp tex al 15.4
10 Cole, Gerrit 3232 pi sp nyy al 15.0
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Mariners pitcher George Kirby (6IP 5H 0R BB 4K W in the 6-2 win over the Astros) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 11.7 for the season, 28th among all players and 13th among AL pitchers.

Scoring

  • Ober earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day.

  • Lugo earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day.

  • Walker and Margot each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day.

  • All of Tuesday’s other Player of the Game winners (listed in the chart) 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.

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Box‑Toppers Player of the Game winners

Here is the top player from each of the day’s games listed from highest to lowest Box‑Toppers game score (BTG).

9/26 BTG Game Player AB R H BI IP H R ER BB K
MLB +11.0 MIN 11, OAK 3 Bailey Ober (W, 8‑6) ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ 5.0 2 0 0 0 8
NL +9.2 SD 4, SF 0 Seth Lugo (W, 8‑7) ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ 8.2 3 0 0 3 7
+8.2 `PHI 3, PIT 2 (F/10) Aaron Nola ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ 6.2 4 1 1 0 8
BAT +7.0 ARI 15, CHW 4 Christian Walker 1B 5 3 3 6 ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑
+7.0 BAL 1, WSH 0 Kyle Bradish (W, 12‑7) ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ 8.0 3 0 0 2 4
+5.0 CIN 11, CLE 7 Elly De La Cruz SS 5 3 3 4 ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑
+5.0 LAD 11, COL 2 Bobby Miller (W, 11‑4) ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ 7.0 7 2 2 0 9
+5.0 `NYY 2, TOR 0 Michael King ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ 6.0 1 0 0 5 5
BAT +4.0 TB 9, BOS 7 Manuel Margot CF 4 2 4 2 ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑
+4.0 LAA 9, TEX 3 Brandon Drury 1B 4 2 3 3 ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑
+4.0 SEA 6, HOU 2 George Kirby (W, 12‑10) ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ 6.0 5 0 0 1 4
+4.0 STL 4, MIL 1 Ryan Helsley (S, 13) ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ 1.0 0 0 0 0 3
+2.2 `DET 6, KC 3 Reese Olson ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ 5.2 5 2 1 2 7
+2.0 COL 4, LAD 1 Nolan Jones LF 3 2 2 1 ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑
+2.0 ATL 7, CHC 6 Brad Hand (W, 5‑2) ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ 1.0 0 0 0 0 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.
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Box-Toppers point totals of the day’s Player of the Game winners

Here are Box-Toppers point totals of each of the Player of the Game winners. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total in 2023 (’23). Also shown is their point total for this season and last (’22-23), the period 2018-2023 (’18-23) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2023 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2022 total (+/-).
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Player of the Game Pos Team ’23 ’22‑23 ’18‑23 Career +/‑
Bradish, Kyle 4597 pi sp bal al 14.0 20.0 20.0 20.0 +8.0
Nola, Aaron 3569 pi sp phi nl 12.0 28.0 77.2 101.7 -4.0
Kirby, George 4595 pi sp sea al 11.7 23.1 23.1 23.1 +0.3
King, Michael 4549 pi cp mr sp nyy al 9.0 13.7 14.7 14.7 +4.3
Ober, Bailey 4441 pi sp min al 8.7 11.7 18.4 18.4 +5.7
Miller, Bobby 4820 pi sp lad nl 7.7 7.7 7.7 7.7 +7.7
Olson, Reese 4861 pi sp det al 7.4 7.4 7.4 7.4 +7.4
Drury, Brandon 3744 2b 1b dh ana al 6.5 11.0 14.0 20.0 +2.0
Lugo, Seth 3729 pi sp sd nl 6.4 8.4 19.4 24.4 +4.4
Walker, Christian 3958 1b ari nl 6.0 11.5 19.0 19.0 +0.5
De La Cruz, Elly 4844 3b ss cin nl 5.5 5.5 5.5 5.5 +5.5
Helsley, Ryan 4589 pi cp stl nl 4.0 10.0 10.0 10.0 -2.0
Jones, Nolan 4686 lf col nl 3.5 6.0 6.0 6.0 +1.0
Margot, Manuel 3861 cf tb al 3.0 7.0 13.5 17.5 -1.0
Hand, Brad 2907 pi mr cp atl nl 1.0 3.0 19.0 33.7 -1.0
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A Box-Toppers look at Wednesday’s pitching matchups

A Box-Toppers look at the upcoming day’s probable pitching matchups. Teams are paired below with visiting teams on top and home teams on the bottom. Each team’s starting pitcher is shown with their Box-Toppers point total from 2023 (’23), over a two-year period (’22-23), over a six-year period (’18-23) and their career point total.
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Game Starter ’23 ’22‑23 ’18‑23 Career
ARI Pfaadt, Brandon 4812 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0
CHW Undecided 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
MIA Garrett, Braxton 4341 12.7 18.4 20.4 20.4
NYM Undecided 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
CIN Abbott, Andrew 4839 11.0 11.0 11.0 11.0
CLE Bieber, Shane 4005 3.0 16.7 59.3 59.3
TB Glasnow, Tyler 3948 11.4 11.4 47.8 47.8
BOS Bello, Brayan 4727 2.0 3.0 3.0 3.0
WSH Corbin, Patrick 3027 7.1 11.1 50.2 92.4
BAL Rodriguez, Grayson 4790 7.0 7.0 7.0 7.0
KC Undecided 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
DET Skubal, Tarik 4414 9.7 20.4 29.1 29.1
PIT Oviedo, Johan 4442 8.7 11.7 12.7 12.7
PHI Suarez, Ranger 4228 3.7 8.7 18.7 18.7
NYY Cole, Gerrit 3232 15.0 30.4 110.4 153.3
TOR Berrios, Jose 3791 10.4 19.4 60.3 69.3
MIA Undecided 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
NYM Senga, Kodai 4762 12.7 12.7 12.7 12.7
CHC Taillon, Jameson 3658 5.4 16.1 37.5 51.5
ATL Undecided 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
OAK Estes, Joey* 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
MIN Lopez, Pablo 4028 13.4 24.1 47.2 47.2
STL Thompson, Zack 4773 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
MIL Miley, Wade 3006 4.7 5.7 28.1 68.2
LAD Sheehan, Emmet 4886 3.7 3.7 3.7 3.7
COL Davis, Noah* 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
TEX Dunning, Dane 4317 3.0 7.4 12.4 12.4
LAA Canning, Griffin 4134 6.0 6.0 17.7 17.7
HOU Valdez, Framber 4048 10.0 26.0 41.4 41.4
SEA Miller, Bryce 4797 13.1 13.1 13.1 13.1
SD Waldron, Matt 4946 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
SF Manaea, Sean 3637 3.7 9.7 39.8 53.9
Starters subject to change.
* Player has yet to earn Box-Toppers points.
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