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Matt Carpenter of the Cardinals is Box-Toppers Player of the Day for games played Friday, July 20.
Carpenter hit three homers, two doubles and went 5-for-5, scoring four time and driving in seven runs, in the 18-5 win over the Cubs. Carpenter’s Box-Toppers of +11.0 Friday is the second highest of the season, behind only the +13.0 game score recorded July 7 by Mark Reynolds of the Nationals.
Read MoreMariners pitcher Wade LeBlanc is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Saturday, Yankees pitcher Luis Severino extended his season Box-Toppers points lead among American League pitchers after earning Player of the Game honors.
Read More
George Springer of the Astros is Friday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 20.0 |
| 2 | Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | sf nl | 11.7 |
| 2 | Fernandez, Jose 3147 | pi sp | fla nl | 11.7 |
| 3 | Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | chi nl | 10.7 |
| 4 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 10.0 |
| 6 | Syndergaard, Noah 3472 | pi sp | nym nl | 10.0 |
| 7 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 9.8 |
| 8 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | ari nl | 9.7 |
| 9 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | chi al | 9.7 |
| 10 | Hamels, Cole 2135 | pi sp | tex al | 9.4 |
Springer hit a grand slam and a triple in the 13-4 win over the Royals. Springer went 3-for-5, scoring twice and driving in five total runs.
National League Player of the Day—Wil Myers of the Padres homered and doubled, going 3-for-5, scoring twice and driving in five runs, in the 13-4 win over the Reds.
Both Springer and Myers had Box-Toppers game scores Friday of +5.0, but Springer held the tiebreaker to earn overall Player of the Day honors because he hit a homer and a triple, while Myers hit a homer and a double.
Batters of the Day—There are no separate American League or National League Batters of the Day for Friday because both the overall Player of the Day and the NL Player of the Day were batters—Springer and Myers.
Notable—Mariners pitcher Wade LeBlanc earned his first Box-Toppers point in nearly six years after earning Player of the Game honors Friday.
LeBlanc (6IP 3H 0R BB 3K ND in the 4-3 win over the Cardinals) last earned Player of the Game honors and a Box-Toppers point on Aug. 15, 2010, when he was with the Padres.
Commentary—It was the second unremarkable day in a row for Box-Toppers Players of the Games, with no particularly outstanding performances contributing to team wins. Thursday’s Player of the Day had the season’s second-lowest Box-Toppers game score to win that honor; Friday had the third-lowest high score of the season.
And while some of the blame on low scores Thursday was placed on the light schedule (only nine games played), Friday’s scores did not fare much better with a complete slate of 15 games.
It was a rare occurrence Friday when no pitchers earned Box-Toppers bonus points for being overall or league Player of the Day—batters won both spots.
Starting pitchers generally are the players with each day’s highest Box-Toppers game scores, but for the past two days only two starting pitchers have even earned Player of the Game honors (Friday—Wade LeBlanc of the Mariners, Thursday—Wei-Yin Chen of the Marlins. Interestingly, both pitchers earned no decisions.) There have been 12 middle relievers or closers with two or fewer innings pitched who earned Player of the Game honors over the 24 games played Thursday and Friday.
In addition, over the past two days, players earning Player of the Game honors have had relatively fewer season Box-Toppers points. It is as if the big stars have mostly taken the past two days off. Friday’s Player of the Game with the most season Box-Toppers points is Chris Davis of the Orioles (2B 2-4 R 2BI in the 6-3 win over the Rays). Davis earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 6.5 for the season, 27th among all players and fourth among AL batters.
Interestingly (or not), baseball’s other Khris Davis (of the Athletics) also earned Player of the Game honors Friday in the 7-4 win over the Angels (2-4 R 3BI).
Scoring—Springer earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Myers earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. All of Friday’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.
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score
| 6/24 | Score | Game | Player of Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 5.0 | HOU 13/KC 4 | George Springer, RF | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| NL | 5.0 | SD 13/CIN 4 | Wil Myers, 1B | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 5.0 | NYM 8/ATL 6 | James Loney, 1B | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 5.0 | `SEA 4/STL 3 | Wade LeBlanc | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | ||
| 4.0 | ARI 10/COL 9 | Yasmany Tomas, RF | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 4.0 | NYY 5/MIN 3 | Aroldis Chapman (S,14) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 4.0 | BOS 8/TEX 7 | Koji Uehara (S,2) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 3.2 | PIT 8/LAD 6 | Neftali Feliz (W,2-0; H,17) | - | - | - | - | 1.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | MIL 5/DC 3 | Carlos Torres (W,1-1) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.1 | CHC 5/MIA 4 | Hector Rondon (S,13) | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 2.0 | OAK 7/LAA 4 | Khris Davis, LF | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | SF 5/PHI 4 | Brandon Belt, 1B | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | CHW 3/TOR 2 | Nate Jones (W,3-2) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 1.0 | BAL 6/TB 3 | Chris Davis, 1B | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | CLE 7/DET 4 | Chris Gimenez, C | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| `Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save. | ||||||||||||||
| Player of Game | Pos | Team | 16 | 15-16 | 11-16 | Career | +/- |
| Davis, Chris 2478 | 1b | bal al | 6.5 | 17.5 | 48.4 | 56.9 | -4.5 |
| Myers, Wil 3228 | 1b | sd nl | 5.7 | 8.7 | 14.2 | 14.2 | 2.7 |
| Springer, George 3337 | rf | hou al | 5.5 | 6.5 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 4.5 |
| Davis, Khris 3242 | lf | oak al | 4.2 | 8.2 | 14.2 | 14.2 | 0.2 |
| Belt, Brandon 2943 | 1b | sf nl | 4.0 | 5.5 | 17.5 | 17.5 | 2.5 |
| Chapman, Aroldis 2826 | pi cp | nyy al | 3.0 | 11.0 | 41.0 | 42.0 | -5.0 |
| Uehara, Koji 2802 | pi cp mr | bos al | 3.0 | 8.0 | 25.0 | 29.0 | -2.0 |
| Rondon, Hector 3201 | pi cp | chi nl | 3.0 | 5.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 1.0 |
| Tomas, Yasmany 3489 | lf rf | ari nl | 2.5 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | -1.0 |
| Jones, Nate 3125 | pi cp mr | chi al | 2.0 | 3.0 | 10.0 | 10.0 | 1.0 |
| Feliz, Neftali 2651 | pi mr cp | pit nl | 1.0 | 2.0 | 10.7 | 18.7 | 0.0 |
| Torres, Carlos 2668 | pi mr | mil nl | 1.0 | 2.0 | 8.0 | 9.7 | 0.0 |
| Gimenez, Chris 2870 | ca | cle al | 1.0 | 2.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 0.0 |
| Loney, James 2206 | 1b | nym nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 12.0 | 33.4 | 1.0 |
| LeBlanc, Wade 2669 | pi sp | sea al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 8.0 | 1.0 |
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. Players earn Box-Toppers points 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.