Mariners’ Kirby tops players for Sunday, June 8; Pirates’ Skenes rises to 6th place

Mariners pitcher George Kirby is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

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Mariners pitcher George Kirby is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in 2025 Box-Toppers points (BTP) earned in the regular season through Sunday, June 8.
  Player Pos Team BTP
1 Zack Wheeler pi sp Phillies 11.1
2 Carlos Rodón pi sp Yankees 9.7
3 Tarik Skubal pi sp Tigers 9.0
4 Yoshinobu Yamamoto pi sp Dodgers 9.0
5 Max Fried pi sp Yankees 8.7
6 Paul Skenes pi sp Pirates 8.4
7 Hunter Brown pi sp Astros 8.4
8 Garrett Crochet pi sp Red Sox 8.4
9 Sonny Gray pi sp Cardinals 8.0
10 Bryan Woo pi sp Mariners 8.0
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Also Sunday, Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes rises to sixth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning National League Player of the Day honors. In addition, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw extends his streak of earning Box-Toppers points to 18 consecutive seasons Sunday, the longest active streak, and also extends his lead in career Box-Toppers points among active players.

Player of the Day

Kirby struck out 14 over seven innings, allowing two runs, two hits and no walks, in the 3-2 win over the Angels.

Kirby earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, his first points of the season, and is 183rd among all players, 50th among AL pitchers.

Kirby earned 15.4 Box-Toppers points in 2024, ninth among all players and fourth among AL pitchers. Kirby was out until May 22 with right shoulder inflammation. Sunday was Kirby’s fourth start of the 2025 season and the first in which the Mariners won the game.

National League Player of the Day

Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes (7.2IP 2H R 0ER BB 7K ND in the 2-1 win over the Phillies) earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points, giving him 8.4 for the season, rising to sixth place among all players and third place among NL pitchers, behind Zack Wheeler of the Phillies (11.1) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Dodgers (9.0).

National League Player of the Day is Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes.

National League Batter of the Day

Jeff McNeil of the Mets (2HR 2B 3-5 3R 4BI in the 13-5 win over the Rockies) earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points, his first points of the season.

American League Batter of the Day

Abraham Toro of the Red Sox (HR 2-2B 3-5 2R 2BI in the 11-7 win over the Yankees) earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points, his first points of the season.

Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw has now earned Box-Toppers points in 18 straight seasons.

Streak

Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw has now earned Box-Toppers points in 18 straight seasons—the longest active streak and the second-longest streak for a pitcher (since 1995)—after earning his first Player of the Game honor of 2025 Sunday.

Box-Toppers season streaks

Here are the players who have earned Box-Toppers points in the most consecutive seasons. Albert Pujols holds the record for the longest such streak at 22 seasons. Players are listed by length of their streak. Also shown is the duration of their streak and their career Box-Toppers point (BTP) total. (Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995.)
 
Streak Player Pos Duration Career
BTP
1 22 Albert Pujols 1b 2001‑2022 207.8
2 20 Miguel Cabrera dh 1b 2003‑2022 159.4
3 19 Jason Giambi 1b 1995‑2013 133.4
3 19 Carlos Beltran rf 1999‑2017 108.6
3 19 CC Sabathia pi sp 2001‑2019 203.4
6 18 Jim Thome 1b dh 1995‑2012 146.7
6 18 Chipper Jones 3b 1995‑2012 149.0
6 18 Johnny Damon lf 1995‑2012 63.0
6 18 Alex Rodriguez 3b 1996‑2013 187.0
6 18 Nelson Cruz dh 2006‑2023 89.9
6 18 Clayton Kershaw* pi sp 2008‑2025 273.4
BTP: Box-Toppers points
* Active streak.

Kershaw (5IP 6H R 0BB 7K W in the 7-3 win over the Cardinals) earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2008 with the Dodgers.

Kershaw’s 18-season streak is the longest active streak, ahead of the 16-season streak by Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer (2009-2024). Kershaw is now one of 11 players since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995 to record a streak of 18 or more consecutive seasons earning Box-Toppers points. His 18-season streak is tied with five others for the sixth-longest streak since 1995. It is also the second-longest streak for a pitcher since 1995. Only CC Sabathia had a longer streak—19 seasons (2001-2019).

The longest streak is 22 consecutive seasons earning points by Albert Pujols, who did it from 2001-2022.

Kershaw also now has 273.4 career Box-Toppers points, second-most among all players since 1995, moving 9.1 points behind “all-time” leader Randy Johnson (282.5). (It should be noted that Johnson began his career in 1988, before the advent of Box-Toppers tracking. If his entire career were tracked, rough projections put his Box-Toppers point total at 380.)

All-time leaders

Here are Box-Toppers top 20 players since record keeping began in 1995:
  Player Pos Team BTP
1 Randy Johnson pi sp Retired 282.5
2 Clayton Kershaw pi sp Dodgers 273.4
3 Max Scherzer pi sp Rangers 253.7
4 Justin Verlander pi sp Astros 247.0
5 Pedro Martinez pi sp Retired 244.8
6 Zack Greinke pi sp Free agent 224.5
7 Albert Pujols 1b Retired 207.8
8 CC Sabathia pi sp Retired 203.4
9 Curt Schilling pi sp Retired 194.1
10 Alex Rodriguez 3b Retired 187.0
11 Jon Lester pi sp Retired 179.3
12 Chris Sale pi sp Braves 176.1
13 Felix Hernandez pi sp Retired 175.1
14 Cole Hamels pi sp Retired 174.2
15 Roy Halladay pi sp Retired 170.7
16 Johan Santana pi sp Retired 166.6
17 Manny Ramirez lf dh Retired 166.2
18 Gerrit Cole pi sp Yankees 165.0
19 Roger Clemens pi sp Retired 164.8
20 John Smoltz pi sp Retired 160.9
BTP: Box-Toppers points

Kershaw leads active players in career points ahead of Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer (253.7) and leads active NL pitchers in career points ahead of Justin Verlander of the Giants (247.0), who ranks third among active players. Neither Scherzer nor Verlander have earned Box-Toppers points so far in 2025.

Kershaw extended his streak to 17 seasons in 2024 with his lowest single-season Box-Toppers point total in his career, earning just 2.0, 114th among NL pitchers.

His best season was 2014 with the Dodgers when he had 31.5 Box-Toppers points, first among all players. He has led all players in Box-Toppers points in a season three times (2011, 2013 and 2014) and finished among the top three in points in each season from 2011 to 2017. He earned 20 or more points for those seven straight seasons, the longest such streak since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995.

Scoring

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

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

  • McNeil and Castro each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s 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.

For additional updates, follow Box-Toppers on Bluesky or Twitter (X).

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).
6/8 BTG Game Player of the Game AB R H BI   IP H R ER BB K
MLB +15.0 SEA 3, LAA 2 George Kirby (W, 1‑3)   7.0 2 2 2 0 14
NL +10.2 `PIT 2, PHI 1 Paul Skenes   7.2 2 1 0 1 7
  +10.0 DET 4, CHC 0 Jack Flaherty (W, 5‑6) 0   6.0 2 0 0 3 9
  +6.0 KC 7, CHW 5 Michael Lorenzen (W, 4‑6)   6.0 1 2 2 2 7
BAT +5.0 NYM 13, COL 5 Jeff McNeil 2B 5 3 3 4  
  +5.0 TB 3, MIA 2 Edwin Uceta (W, 5‑1)   2.0 0 0 0 0 3
  +5.0 CIN 4, ARI 2 Taylor Rogers (W, 2‑2)   2.0 0 0 0 0 3
  +4.2 CLE 4, HOU 2 Cade Smith (W, 2‑2)   1.2 0 0 0 0 3
  +4.1 `SD 1, MIL 0 Ryan Bergert   5.1 1 0 0 4 4
  +4.0 LAD 7, STL 3 Clayton Kershaw (W, 1‑0)   5.0 6 1 1 0 7
  +3.0 SF 4, ATL 3 Mike Yastrzemski RF 2 1 1 3  
  +3.0 ATH 5, BAL 1 Sean Newcomb (W, 1‑4)   3.0 3 0 0 0 3
  +2.1 TEX 4, WSH 2 Robert Garcia (S, 4)   1.1 1 0 0 0 2
BAT +2.0 BOS 11, NYY 7 Abraham Toro 3B‑1B 5 2 3 2  
  +1.0 MIN 6, TOR 3 Willi Castro LF‑RF 4 2 3 0  
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 2025 (’25). Also shown is their point total for this season and last (’24-’25), the period 2020-2025 (’20-25) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2025 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2024 total (+/-).
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Player of the Game Pos Team ’25 ’24‑25 ’20‑25 Career +/‑
Skenes, Paul 5005 pi sp pit nl 8.4 21.4 21.4 21.4 -4.6
Castro, Willi 4334 lf rf min al 3.5 3.5 6.5 6.5 +3.5
Flaherty, Jack 3971 pi sp det al 3.0 15.0 30.7 60.3 -9.0
Lorenzen, Michael 3479 pi sp kc al 3.0 8.0 22.7 31.2 -2.0
Kirby, George 4595 pi sp sea al 2.0 17.4 42.5 42.5 -13.4
Yastrzemski, Mike 4203 rf sf nl 2.0 2.0 12.5 13.5 +2.0
Garcia, Robert 4892 pi cp mr tex al 2.0 2.0 3.0 3.0 +2.0
McNeil, Jeff 4050 2b rf nym nl 1.5 5.5 10.0 14.0 -2.5
Toro, Abraham 4447 3b 1b rf 2b bos al 1.5 1.5 7.0 7.0 +1.5
Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 1.0 3.0 45.9 273.4 -1.0
Smith, Cade 5066 pi mr cle al 1.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 -1.0
Uceta, Edwin 5072 pi cp mr tb al 1.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 0.0
Newcomb, Sean 3831 pi mr oak al 1.0 1.0 4.0 21.1 +1.0
Rogers, Taylor 3648 pi mr cp cin nl 1.0 1.0 5.0 17.0 +1.0
Berget, Ryan 5198 pi sp sd nl 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 +1.0
What are those numbers after players' names?
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
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