Rangers’ Garver tops players for Sunday, Sept. 3; Dodgers’ Miller tops NL players

Mitch Garver of the Rangers is Sunday’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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Mitch Garver of the Rangers is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

Garver hit two home runs, including a three-run shot, in the 6-5 win over the Twins. Garver went 4-for-4, scoring twice and driving in four runs.

Garver earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 5.5 for the season, 131st among all players and 22nd among American League batters.

National League Player of the Day

Dodgers pitcher Bobby Miller struck out five over seven innings, allowing one run, three hits and one walk, in the 3-1 win over the Braves.

Miller earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day, giving him 6.7 for the season, 33rd among NL pitchers.

Miller had a +6.0 Box-Toppers game score Sunday, same as overall Player of the Day Garver and Padres pitcher Seth Lugo, who was Player of the Game in the 4-0 win over the Giants (6IP 3H 0R BB 4K W). Garver won overall Player of the Day because in cases of game score ties, batters rank ahead of pitchers. Miller beat Lugo for NL Player of the Day because he had more innings pitched—seven vs. six.

National League Player of the Day is Dodgers pitcher Bobby Miller.

National League Batter of the Day

Pete Alonso of the Mets hit two home runs and went 3-for-4, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 6-3 win over the Mariners.

Alonso earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being NL Batter of the Day, giving him 10.5 for the season, 28th among all players and second among NL batters, behind Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Braves (10.7).

Alonso becomes the 36th player this season with 10 or more Box-Toppers points. He is the fifth batter with 10 points in 2023 and the fourth who has earned 10 or more points as a batter (Shohei Ohtani of the Angels, who has 19.4 points has earned 9.7 of his points as a batter). The five batters with 10 or more points this season already exceeds the four who earned 10 or more in 2022. That was the fewest number of batters with 10 or more points since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995. (The most is 28 in 1997, 1999 and 2000).

This is Alonso’s second season with 10 or more points and his second straight. He also did it in 2022 with the Mets, when he had 14.9 points, 20th overall and first among NL batters.

National League Batter of the Day is Pete Alonso of the Mets.

American League Batter of the Day

There is no separate AL Batter of the Day for Sunday because the overall Player of the Day is AL batter Mitch Garver.

Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale is Box-Toppers Player of the Game in Sunday’s win over the Royals.

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 Sunday, Sept. 3.

Player Pos Team BTP
1 Ohtani, Shohei 3933 pi sp dh ana al 19.4
2 Strider, Spencer 4626 pi sp atl nl 19.1
3 Peralta, Freddy 3965 pi sp mil nl 15.7
4 Bassitt, Chris 3413 pi sp tor al 15.4
5 Luzardo, Jesus 4282 pi sp fla nl 15.1
6 Gausman, Kevin 3191 pi sp tor al 14.7
7 Scherzer, Max 2588 pi sp tex al 14.4
8 Gallen, Zac 4171 pi sp ari nl 13.7
9 Lopez, Pablo 4028 pi sp min al 13.4
10 Miller, Bryce 4797 pi sp sea al 13.1
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Notable

Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale now has 152.3 career Box-Toppers points—24th-most since 1995—after earning Player of the Game honors Sunday.

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Sale (5IP 2H 0R 2BB 5K W in the 7-3 win over the Royals), earning 1.0 Box-Toppers point, passes Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright (152.3) on the “all-time” career points list. Though they both have the same career point total, Sale ranks ahead because he has more 2023 points—7.7 vs. 0.0. Sale now trails 23rd-ranked player Greg Maddux (152.7). (It should be noted that Maddux would have an estimated 250 career Box-Toppers points if his entire career from 1986 were tracked.)

Sale ranks sixth among active players in career points, fourth among active AL pitchers.

Sale’s 7.7 Box-Toppers points in 2023 is 31st among AL pitchers.

Debut

Two players made their Box-Toppers debut Sunday, both with their first career Player of the Game honor:

  • Spencer Horwitz of the Blue Jays (HR 3-4 2R 2BI in the 7-5 win over the Rockies) made his Major League debut June 18 and was playing in his fifth career game.

  • Rene Pinto of the Rays (HR 1-2 R 2BI in the 6-2 win over the Guardians) made his Major League debut April 26, 2022, and was playing in his 45th career game.

Scoring

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

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

  • Alonso earns 1.5 points for being NL Batter of the Day.

  • All of Sunday’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).

9/3 BTG Game Player AB R H BI IP H R ER BB K
MLB +6.0 TEX 6, MIN 5 Mitch Garver DH 4 2 4 4 ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑
NL +6.0 LAD 3, ATL 1 Bobby Miller (W, 9‑3) ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ 7.0 3 1 1 1 5
+6.0 SD 4, SF 0 Seth Lugo (W, 6‑6) ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ 6.0 3 0 0 1 4
+6.0 BOS 7, KC 3 Chris Sale (W, 6‑3) ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ 5.0 2 0 0 2 5
BAT +5.0 NYM 6, SEA 3 Pete Alonso 1B 4 2 3 4 ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑
+4.0 CHC 15, CIN 7 Mike Tauchman CF 6 3 4 3 ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑
+4.0 OAK 10, LAA 6 Seth Brown PH‑LF 1 2 1 2 ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑
+3.0 TOR 7, COL 5 Spencer Horwitz 1B 4 2 3 2 ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑
+3.0 DET 3, CHW 2 Tarik Skubal (W, 4‑3) ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ 7.0 5 2 2 2 7
+3.0 `PHI 4, MIL 2 Jeff Hoffman ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ 1.0 0 0 0 0 2
+2.1 BAL 8, ARI 5 Danny Coulombe (W, 5‑1) ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ 1.1 0 0 0 0 1
+2.0 TB 6, CLE 2 René Pinto C 2 1 1 2 ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑
+2.0 NYY 6, HOU 1 Michael King (W, 4‑5) ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ 5.0 5 1 1 0 4
+2.0 STL 6, PIT 4 Giovanny Gallegos (S, 10) ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ 1.0 0 0 0 0 1
+1.0 MIA 6, WSH 4 Luis Arraez 2B 4 2 2 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 +/‑
Alonso, Pete 4118 1b nym nl 10.5 25.4 36.9 36.9 -4.4
King, Michael 4549 pi cp mr nyy al 8.0 12.7 13.7 13.7 +3.3
Sale, Chris 2806 pi sp bos al 7.7 7.7 40.8 152.3 +7.7
Arraez, Luis 4219 2b fla nl 7.5 13.0 19.7 19.7 +2.0
Miller, Bobby 4820 pi sp lad nl 6.7 6.7 6.7 6.7 +6.7
Tauchman, Mike 4212 cf chi nl 6.0 6.0 7.5 7.5 +6.0
Skubal, Tarik 4414 pi sp det al 5.7 16.4 25.1 25.1 -5.0
Garver, Mitch 3950 ca tex al 5.5 6.5 23.0 23.0 +4.5
Lugo, Seth 3729 pi sp sd nl 4.7 6.7 17.7 22.7 +2.7
Brown, Seth 4239 lf oak al 4.5 8.0 14.5 14.5 +1.0
Coulombe, Daniel 3720 pi mr bal al 3.0 3.0 3.0 5.0 +3.0
Hoffman, Jeff 3806 pi cp mr sp phi nl 2.0 3.0 5.0 8.7 +1.0
Gallegos, Giovanny 4104 pi cp mr stl nl 1.0 3.0 13.0 13.0 -1.0
Horwitz, Spencer 4922 1b tor al 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 +1.0
Pinto, Rene 4923 ca tb al 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 +1.0
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A Box-Toppers look at Monday’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
CHW Scholtens, Jesse* 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
KC Ragans, Cole 4889 2.7 2.7 2.7 2.7
SF Webb, Logan 4258 9.0 18.7 36.9 36.9
CHC Steele, Justin 4415 9.1 14.1 17.1 17.1
HOU France, J.P. 4811 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0
TEX Heaney, Andrew 3515 10.4 18.4 41.5 46.5
TOR Berrios, Jose 3791 7.4 16.4 57.3 66.3
OAK Waldichuk, Ken 4757 1.0 2.0 2.0 2.0
BOS Bello, Brayan 4727 2.0 3.0 3.0 3.0
TB Civale, Aaron 4173 6.0 11.0 28.4 28.4
COL Lambert, Peter 4155 3.0 3.0 5.0 5.0
ARI Kelly, Merrill 4143 10.0 21.0 36.0 36.0
SEA Woo, Bryan 4842 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0
CIN Antone, Tejay 4362 0.0 0.0 2.0 2.0
MIN Lopez, Pablo 4028 13.4 24.1 47.2 47.2
CLE Giolito, Lucas 3900 3.0 7.0 43.1 46.1
MIL Burnes, Corbin 4029 11.7 27.1 55.9 55.9
PIT Undecided 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
PHI Walker, Taijuan 3453 7.7 15.4 30.8 57.2
SD Hill, Rich 2215 4.0 11.7 32.4 83.2
BAL Rodriguez, Grayson 4790 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0
LAA Rosenberg, Kenny* 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Starters subject to change.
* Player has yet to earn Box-Toppers points.
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