The Houston Astros maintain top spot in Box-Toppers team rankings for the fourth straight week.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers rise to lead National League teams and the Colorado Rockies are the week’s hottest team.
Read MoreRays’ Blake Snell tops players for Monday, June 25, rises to 9th in player rankings
Rays pitcher Blake Snell is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to ninth place in season player rankings.
Snell struck out 10 over seven scoreless innings, allowing one hit and four walks, in the 11-0 win over the Nationals.
Read MoreDodgers' Kenta Maeda tops players for Wednesday, May 23; Astros' Verlander rises to 9th in player rankings
Dodgers pitcher Kenta Maeda is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Wednesday, Astros pitcher Justin Verlander rises to ninth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Read MoreDodgers' Kenta Maeda tops players for Thursday, May 17; Red Sox' Price tops AL players
Dodgers pitcher Kenta Maeda is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Maeda struck out eight over eight scoreless innings, allowing two hits and no walks, in the 7-0 win over the Marlins.
Read MoreDodgers' Kenta Maeda tops player for Saturday, March 31; Twins' Gibson tops AL players
Dodgers pitcher Kenta Maeda is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Maeda struck out 10 over five scoreless innings, allowing five hits and one walk, in the 5-0 win over the Giants.
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Los Angeles Dodgers have Box-Toppers' edge against Houston Astros in 2017 World Series
The Los Angeles Dodgers should be considered favorites against the Houston Astros in the 2017 World Series.
The Dodgers were the dominant, hottest team much of the season. And though they slumped in August and September, losing 16 of 17 games from Aug. 26 to Sept. 11, they finished strong, ending with baseball’s best record and the second-highest Box-Toppers point total among all teams.
Read MoreNLCS preview: Dodgers enter rematch against Cubs with more favorable stats, but L.A. declining since midseason, while Chicago is rising
The 2017 National League Championship Series is a rematch of the 2016 series between the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers. But this year, the tables are turned.
Last year, the Cubs were kings, leading Box-Toppers team rankings in 2016 almost wire-to-wire, and coming into their NLCS matchup against the Dodgers holding practically every advantage. This year, they’ve scraped together their success with a pitching staff that is little more than half as good as it was when it led them to a World Series title in 2016.
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Dodgers lead Box-Toppers rankings for 10th week, Astros regain AL lead, thanks to trades
The Los Angeles Dodgers top Box-Toppers team rankings for the 10th straight week despite earning only 1.0 Box-Toppers point during the past week.
Meanwhile, the Houston Astros bounce back to lead American League teams in Box-Toppers rankings on the strength of two August deadline acquisitions. The Astros also gained more Box-Toppers points than any other team during the past week mainly because of those trades.
Read MoreMets' Jacob deGrom tops players for Friday, Aug. 25, rises to 6th in Box-Toppers rankings
Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom is Friday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to sixth place in season player rankings.
deGrom struck out 10 over 7 2/3 innings, allowing one run, five hits and one walk, in the 4-2 win over the Nationals.
Read MoreDodgers' Kenta Maeda tops players for Tuesday, Aug. 1; Rockies' Arenado rises to lead NL batters in Box-Toppers points
Dodgers 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.
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Nationals, Astros each have most players (seven) in Box-Toppers top 100 of 2017 at All-Star break
A look at the top 100 players in Box-Toppers points at the midseason break. League-leading teams—Nationals, Astros, Dodgers—have the most players on the list.
Read MoreDodgers' Kenta Maeda tops players for Tuesday, June 27; Athletics' Healy rises to lead all batters in 2017 Box-Toppers points
Dodgers pitcher Kenta Maeda is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of June 27:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 16.4 |
| 2 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 14.0 |
| 3 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 12.4 |
| 4 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 12.1 |
| 5 | Ray, Robbie 3502 | pi sp | ari nl | 10.0 |
| 6 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 9.4 |
| 7 | McCullers, Lance 3488 | pi sp | hou al | 9.4 |
| 8 | Wood, Alex 3246 | pi sp | lad nl | 9.0 |
| 9 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | ari nl | 8.7 |
| 10 | Healy, Ryon 3685 | dh 1b 3b | oak al | 8.7 |
Also Tuesday, Ryon Healy of the Athletics rises to lead all batters in 2017 Box-Toppers points after earning Player of the Game honors. He rises to 10th in overall season player rankings. Plus, Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer maintains his second-place spot in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday.
Player of the Day—Maeda pitched seven scoreless innings, striking out six and allowing four hits and no walks, in the 4-0 win over the Angels.
American League Player of the Day—Rays pitcher Alex Cobb pitched eight scoreless innings, allowing two hits, one walk and striking out four, in the 4-2, 10-inning win over the Pirates. Cobb picked up a no-decision and did not earn the win because the Pirates tied the game in the ninth inning, 2-2, after he exited.
Cobb had a Box-Toppers game score Tuesday of +9.0, tied with overall Player of the Day Maeda. Normally because Cobb had more innings pitched than Maeda (8 vs. 7), he would have won overall Player of the Day. But in this case, Maeda won the tiebreaker to earn Player of the Day because he earned the win in his game, while Cobb had a no-decision.
National League Batter of the Day—Christian Yelich of the Marlins doubled and went 3-for-4, scoring once and driving in two runs, in the 6-3 win over the Mets.
American League Batter of the Day—Ryon Healy of the Athletics hit a grand slam in the 6-4 win over the Astros.
Healy earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being AL Batter of the Day, giving him 8.7 for the season, rising to 10th place in season player rankings. He also rises to first among all batters, passing previous leader Aaron Judge of the Yankees (8.2). Healy replaces Judge in the 10th-place spot in Box-Toppers player rankings and is now the only batter among Box-Toppers’ top 10 players for 2017.
Rankings—Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer maintains his second-place spot in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday.
Scherzer (6IP 2H R 0BB 6K W in the 6-1 win over the Cubs) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 14.0 for the season. He trails overall leader and NL pitching leader Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers (16.4).
Scherzer also now has 145.7 career Box-Toppers points, 26th-most among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. He trails 25th-ranked player on the “all-time” list, David Ortiz (145.9).
Debut—Giants pitcher Cory Gearrin made his Box-Toppers debut Tuesday with his first career Player of the Game honor.
Gearrin (3IP 2H 0R BB K W in the 4-3, 14-inning win over the Rockies) made his Major League debut April 25, 2011, and was playing in his 171st career game. He is the 3,838th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Scoring—Maeda earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Cobb earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Yelich and Healy each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Tuesday’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.
Top player from each game
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score| 6/27 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 9.0 | LAD 4, LAA 0 | Kenta Maeda (W, 6-3) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |
| AL | 9.0 | `TB 4, PIT 2 (F/10) | Alex Cobb | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | |
| 8.0 | WSH 6, CHC 1 | Max Scherzer (W, 9-5) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | ||
| 7.0 | ATL 3, SD 0 | Sean Newcomb (W, 1-2) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | ||
| 7.0 | BOS 9, MIN 2 | Drew Pomeranz (W, 7-4) | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 | ||
| 6.1 | `CHW 4, NYY 3 | Jose Quintana | - | - | - | - | 6.1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6 | ||
| 5.0 | `TEX 2, CLE 1 | Tyson Ross | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | ||
| 3.1 | BAL 3, TOR 1 | Kevin Gausman (W, 4-7) | - | - | - | - | 5.1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | ||
| 3.0 | PHI 8, SEA 2 | Aaron Nola (W, 5-5) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 9 | ||
| 3.0 | DET 5, KC 3 | Justin Wilson (S, 7) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| BAT | 2.0 | MIA 6, NYM 3 | Christian Yelich (CF) | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 2.0 | CIN 8, MIL 6 | Adam Duvall (LF) | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| BAT | 2.0 | OAK 6, HOU 4 | Ryon Healy (3B) | 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 2.0 | ARI 6, STL 5 (F/10) | Chris Herrmann (PH-CA) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | SF 4, COL 3 (F/14) | Cory Gearrin (W, 2-2) | - | - | - | - | 3.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
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.
Box-Toppers point totals of the day’s top players
Here are Box-Toppers point totals of each of the Players of the Game. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (’17). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’16-17), the period 2012-2017 (’12-17) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2017 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2016 total (+/-).| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’17 | ’16-17 | ’12-17 | Career | +/- |
| Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 14.0 | 39.7 | 117.9 | 145.7 | -11.7 |
| Healy, Ryon 3685 | dh 1b 3b | oak al | 8.7 | 11.7 | 11.7 | 11.7 | 5.7 |
| Quintana, Jose 3040 | pi sp | chi al | 8.0 | 18.4 | 43.2 | 43.2 | -2.4 |
| Maeda, Kenta 3609 | pi sp | lad nl | 6.0 | 16.0 | 16.0 | 16.0 | -4.0 |
| Duvall, Adam 3573 | lf | cin nl | 4.5 | 11.0 | 12.5 | 12.5 | -2.0 |
| Pomeranz, Drew 3061 | pi sp | bos al | 3.7 | 16.1 | 27.1 | 27.1 | -8.7 |
| Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 3.7 | 10.4 | 12.4 | 12.4 | -3.0 |
| Wilson, Justin 3140 | pi cp | det al | 3.0 | 4.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 2.0 |
| Gausman, Kevin 3191 | pi sp | bal al | 2.7 | 13.5 | 26.9 | 26.9 | -8.1 |
| Cobb, Alex 2916 | pi sp | tb al | 2.7 | 2.7 | 33.1 | 34.1 | 2.7 |
| Yelich, Christian 3334 | cf | fla nl | 2.5 | 8.0 | 18.0 | 18.0 | -3.0 |
| Herrmann, Chris 3196 | ca ph | ari nl | 2.0 | 3.0 | 7.5 | 7.5 | 1.0 |
| Newcomb, Sean 3831 | pi sp | atl nl | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Ross, Tyson 2840 | pi sp | tex al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 20.4 | 23.4 | 1.0 |
| Gearrin, Cory 3838 | pi cp | sf nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
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