Athletics’ Blackburn tops players in Tuesday, March 26’s final day of spring training

Athletics pitcher Paul Blackburn is Box-Toppers Player of the Day in Tuesday’s final day of spring training games.

Box-Toppers Toppers Box

Today’s key Box-Toppers numbers. Click links to jump to charts elsewhere on this page.
▪️ Box-Toppers Player of the Game winners.
▪️ Box-Toppers points of the day’s top players.
▪️ Subscribe to Box-Toppers Email Newsletter.
▪️ Buy me a coffee & support Box-Toppers.

Athletics pitcher Paul Blackburn is Box-Toppers Player of the Day in Tuesday’s final day of spring training games.

All 30 teams play Opening Day regular season games Thursday after a day off Wednesday.

Player of the Day

Blackburn struck out six over 5 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing two hits and no walks, in the 3-1 win over the Giants.

Blackburn would have earned 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day if this were a regular season game. Because it’s a preseason exhibition game, no Box-Toppers points are awarded.

Blackburn earned 4.7 Box-Toppers points in 2023, 63rd among American League pitchers. This is his second Player of the Game honor of 2024 spring training. He also did it March 20 (6IP 0H 0R BB 3K W in the 3-1 win over the Cubs).

National League Player of the Day is Cardinals pitcher Kyle Gibson.

National League Player of the Day

Cardinals pitcher Kyle Gibson struck out nine over five innings, allowing one run, four hits and no walks, in the 7-2 win over the Cubs.

Gibson would have earned 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day if this were a regular season game.

Gibson earned 8.7 Box-Toppers points in 2023 with the Twins, 34th among AL pitchers. Gibson had the most 2023 Box-Toppers points among Tuesday’s Player of the Game winners.

American League Batter of the Day is Julio Rodriguez of the Mariners.

American League Batter of the Day

Julio Rodriguez of the Mariners homered and went 1-for-1, scoring once and driving in two runs, in the 7-6 win over the Padres.

Rodriguez would have earned 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being AL Batter of the Day if this were a regular season game.

Rodriguez earned 4.0 Box-Toppers points in 2023, 45th among AL batters.

National League Batter of the Day

There is no separate NL Batter of the Day for Tuesday’s because no NL batter won Player of the Game honors.

Tuesday’s games

In Tuesday’s nine completed spring training games featuring matchups between two Major League teams, there were seven Player of the Game winners who had previously earned Box-Toppers points in regular season games.

In one of Tuesday’s games, the Player of the Game winner was a player who has yet to earn Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors in the regular season and so has 0.0 career Box-Toppers points.

One game ended in a tie (Tigers vs. Rays) and so no Player of the Game honor was awarded.

Scoring

No Box-Toppers points are awarded in exhibition games. Were it a regular season day, Blackburn would have earned 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Gibson would have earned 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Rodriguez would have earned 1.5 points for being AL Batter of the Day. All of Tuesday’s other Players of the Game (listed in the chart) would have earned 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.

For additional updates, follow Box-Toppers on Twitter.

Buy me a coffee to support Box-Toppers. And thanks!

Buy Me A Coffee

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).

3/26 BTG Game Player AB R H BI IP H R ER BB K
MLB +9.2 OAK 3, SF 1 Paul Blackburn (W, 4‑0) 5.2 2 0 0 0 6
+9.0 `LAA 4, LAD 3 Chase Silseth 5.0 2 2 2 0 10
NL +8.0 STL 7, CHC 2 Kyle Gibson (W, 1‑2) 5.0 4 1 1 0 9
+6.0 MIN 9, ATL 6 Jeff Brigham (W, 1‑2) 2.0 1 0 0 0 5
+5.0 COL 6, MIL 1 Ryan Feltner (W, 1‑0) 4.0 4 0 0 1 6
+4.0 ARI 6, CLE 1 Brandon Pfaadt (W, 1‑1) 5.0 3 1 1 0 4
+3.1 BOS 4, TEX 1 Richard Fitts (W, 1‑0) 3.1 2 0 0 1 3
BAT +3.0 SEA 7, SD 6 Julio Rodríguez CF 1 1 1 2
0.0 DET 3, TB 3 N/A
No points are awarded for exhibition games, but were this an actual regular season day, this is how points would be awarded:
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.
N/A—Not applicable. No Player of the Game was chosen because the game ended in a tie.
All other players listed here would 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.
Back to top

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. No points are awarded during spring training games, so all players have 0.0 Box-Toppers points for 2024. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total in 2023 (’23). Also shown is their point total for the period 2019-2023 (’19-23) and each players’ career point total. (Player of the Game winners not listed here have yet to earn Box-Toppers points during the regular season.)
Back to top

Player of the Game Pos Team ’24 ’23 ’19‑23 Career
Gibson, Kyle 3312 pi sp stl nl 0.0 8.7 35.8 62.2
Blackburn, Paul 3869 pi sp oak al 0.0 4.7 8.7 11.7
Rodriguez, Julio 4590 cf sea al 0.0 4.0 11.5 11.5
Pfaadt, Brandon 4812 pi sp ari nl 0.0 3.7 3.7 3.7
Silseth, Chase 4605 pi sp ana al 0.0 3.0 5.0 5.0
Feltner, Ryan 4635 pi sp col nl 0.0 2.0 4.0 4.0
Brigham, Jeff 4208 pi cp min al 0.0 0.0 1.0 1.0
What are those numbers after players' names?
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Chart is sortable. Click a column header to re-sort the chart by the values in that column. Refresh page to restore chart to default view.
Back to top