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Twins pitcher Ervin Santana is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to fourth in season player rankings.
Santana pitched a four-hit complete game, striking out nine and allowing two runs, four hits and one walk, in the 5-2 win over the Padres. He retired the first 10 batters he faced.
Read MoreDodgers pitcher Kenta Maeda is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Tuesday, Nolan Arenado of the Rockies rises to lead National League batter in Box-Toppers points for the season after earning Player of the Game honors. Plus, Albert Pujols of the Angels moves with 0.2 career Box-Toppers points of “all-time” batting leader Alex Rodriguez.
Read MoreNationals pitcher Gio Gonzalez is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Gonzalez lost a no-hit bid in the ninth inning, pitching eight scoreless innings, allowing one hit, three walks and striking out five, in the 1-0 win over the Marlins.
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During the 2017 season, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw has taken the lead among active players in career Box-Toppers points, rising to third place on Box-Toppers’ “all-time” top 100 players list.
Kershaw has 205.8 career Box-Toppers points, third-most among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. Kershaw leads all players with 22.1 points in 2017.
Read MoreReds pitcher Luis Castillo is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Sunday, Mariners pitcher James Paxton rises to sixth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning American League Player of the Day honors.
Read MoreRockies pitcher German Marquez is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Saturday, Diamondbacks pitcher Zack Greinke rises to fourth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Read MoreYankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka is Friday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Tanaka struck out 14 over eight innings, allowing one run, two hits and no walks, in the 6-1 win over the Rays. Tanaka retired the first 17 batters and had a perfect game in the sixth inning before giving up his first hit.
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Though he’s now on the disabled list, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw remains atop Box-Toppers weekly player rankings for the 11th straight week.
Meanwhile, Edwin Encarnacion of the Indians takes the lead among American League batters in Box-Toppers points, passing last week’s leader, Ryon Healy of the Athletics.
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The Los Angeles Dodgers top Box-Toppers team rankings for the fifth straight week.
Meanwhile, the Houston Astros maintain their lead in Box-Toppers rankings among American League teams for the 10th straight week and the Kansas City Royals are the week’s hottest team, thanks in part to recent player trades.
Read MoreDiamondbacks pitcher Zack Godley is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Thursday, Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer, ranked second in Box-Toppers season player rankings, earns Player of the Game honors. He becomes the second player this season with 20 Box-Toppers points, his fourth straight season with 20 points. Also, he rises to 19th place onBox-Toppers’ “all-time” career points list.
Read MoreRed Sox pitcher Chris Sale is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, bolstering his lead among American League pitchers in season player rankings.
Sale struck out 11 over seven scoreless innings, allowing three hits and one walk, in the 4-0 win over the Mariners.
Read MoreAstros pitcher Charlie Morton is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Morton struck out nine over seven scoreless innings, allowing three hits and one walk, in the 5-0 win over the Phillies.
Read MoreMariners pitcher James Paxton is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to ninth place in season player rankings.
Also Monday, two other players rise in Box-Toppers season player ranking after earning Player of the Game honors—Diamondbacks pitcher Zack Greinke rises to sixth and Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom rises to 10th.
Read MoreIndians pitcher Corey Kluber is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to ninth place in season player rankings.
Also Sunday, 2017 Box-Toppers points leader, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, is headed to the 10-day disabled list after pitching only two innings in his start against the Braves.
Read MoreIndians pitcher Danny Salazar is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Saturday, Cubs pitcher Jon Lester rises to 18th place on Box-Toppers “all-time” career points list after earning National League Player of the Day honors.
Read MoreRed Sox pitcher Chris Sale is Friday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, maintaining his player rankings lead among American League pitchers and becoming the 79th player since 1995 with 100 or more career Box-Toppers points.
Also Friday, Edwin Encarnacion of the Indians rises to first place in Box-Toppers points among AL batters after earning AL Batter of the Day honors.
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Kershaw continues lead in Box-Toppers player rankings. Jay Bruce of the Mets retakes the lead among NL batters. Red Sox' Chris Sale leads AL pitchers, Athletics' Ryon Healy leads AL batters.
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While the Dodgers and Astros continue leading Box-Toppers team rankings, the Cubs, Nationals and Yankees make big gains thanks in part to post All-Star Game trades.
Read MoreBlue Jays pitcher Dominic Leone is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Leone pitched 2 1/3 innings of scoreless middle relief, allowing no hits, no runs, one walk, striking out four and earning the win, in the 8-6 win over the Red Sox.
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Angels pitcher Alex Meyer is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Meyer pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing one hit, one walk and striking out seven, in the 7-0 win over the Nationals.
| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 22.1 |
| 2 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 19.0 |
| 3 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 13.1 |
| 4 | Wood, Alex 3246 | pi sp | lad nl | 13.0 |
| 5 | Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 12.4 |
| 6 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 12.4 |
| 7 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 11.4 |
| 8 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | ari nl | 11.4 |
| 9 | Quintana, Jose 3040 | pi sp | chi nl | 10.0 |
| 10 | Ray, Robbie 3502 | pi sp | ari nl | 10.0 |
National League Player of the Day—Nolan Arenado of the Rockies hit three home runs, including a three-run shot, in the 18-4 win over the Padres. Arenado went 5-for-6, scoring four times and driving in seven runs.
Arenado had a Box-Toppers game score of +10.0, the third-highest game score for a batter in 2017 and only the fourth that was +10.0 or greater. The others:
American League Batter of the Day—Brandon Moss of the Royals homered, doubled and went 3-for-4, scoring twice and driving in two runs, in the 4-3 win over the Tigers.
National League Batter of the Day—There is no separate NL Batter of the Day for Wednesday because the overall NL Player of the Day is batter Nolan Arenado.
Notable—Mariners pitcher James Paxton has the most 2017 Box-Toppers points among the 15 who earned Player of the Game honors Wednesday.
Paxton (7IP 6H R BB 7K W in the 4-1 win over the Astros) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 9.0 for the season and ranks 13th among all players, fifth among AL pitchers.
Scoring—Meyer earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Arenado earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Moss earns 1.5 points for being AL Batter of the Day. All of Wednesday’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.
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.
| 7/19 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 12.0 | LAA 7, WSH 0 | Alex Meyer (W, 4-5) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | |
| NL | 10.0 | COL 18, SD 4 | Nolan Arenado (3B) | 6 | 4 | 5 | 7 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 9.0 | `PIT 3, MIL 2 (F/10) | Gerrit Cole | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 10 | ||
| 6.0 | BAL 10, TEX 2 | Kevin Gausman (W, 6-7) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | ||
| 6.0 | CHC 8, ATL 2 | Mike Montgomery (W, 2-6) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||
| 5.0 | SEA 4, HOU 1 | James Paxton (W, 9-3) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | ||
| 4.0 | LAD 9, CHW 1 (F/8) | Corey Seager (SS) | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| BAT | 3.0 | KC 4, DET 3 | Brandon Moss (DH) | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | CIN 4, ARI 3 (F/11) | Michael Lorenzen (W, 5-2) | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 2.1 | NYM 7, STL 3 | Addison Reed (S, 16) | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | PHI 10, MIA 3 | Maikel Franco (3B) | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | BOS 5, TOR 1 | Dustin Pedroia (2B) | 3 | 0 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | SF 5, CLE 4 | Buster Posey (PH) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.2 | MIN 6, NYY 1 | Jose Berrios (W, 9-3) | - | - | - | - | 6.2 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | ||
| 1.0 | OAK 7, TB 2 | Yonder Alonso (1B) | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’17 | ’16-17 | ’12-17 | Career | +/- |
| Paxton, James 3280 | pi sp | sea al | 9.0 | 13.4 | 20.1 | 20.1 | 4.6 |
| Arenado, Nolan 3306 | 3b | col nl | 7.2 | 17.9 | 27.9 | 27.9 | -3.5 |
| Meyer, Alex 3742 | pi sp | ana al | 7.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 6.0 |
| Posey, Buster 2745 | ca 1b | sf nl | 6.5 | 10.0 | 35.0 | 39.5 | 3.0 |
| Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | pit nl | 6.0 | 12.5 | 41.9 | 41.9 | -0.5 |
| Gausman, Kevin 3191 | pi sp | bal al | 5.4 | 16.2 | 29.6 | 29.6 | -5.4 |
| Seager, Corey 3587 | ss | lad nl | 5.0 | 9.0 | 10.5 | 10.5 | 1.0 |
| Berrios, Jose 3791 | pi sp | min al | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| Alonso, Yonder 2945 | 1b | oak al | 4.0 | 6.0 | 15.5 | 17.0 | 2.0 |
| Moss, Brandon 2520 | dh | kc al | 3.5 | 7.5 | 28.5 | 30.5 | -0.5 |
| Montgomery, Mike 3513 | pi sp cp | chi nl | 3.0 | 8.0 | 12.0 | 12.0 | -2.0 |
| Lorenzen, Michael 3479 | pi cp | cin nl | 3.0 | 4.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 2.0 |
| Franco, Maikel 3510 | 3b | phi nl | 2.7 | 7.2 | 10.4 | 10.4 | -1.8 |
| Pedroia, Dustin 2320 | 2b | bos al | 2.0 | 7.0 | 20.0 | 39.5 | -3.0 |
| Reed, Addison 3023 | pi cp mr | nym nl | 1.0 | 3.0 | 12.0 | 12.0 | -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.