NERD Game Scores: An Off-Day for the Ecstatic
Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.
Most Highly Rated Game
Atlanta at Baltimore | 19:05 ET
Wood (112.0 IP, 104 xFIP-) vs. Gausman (33.0 IP, 114 xFIP-)
Relative to some of baseball’s recent daily schedules, today doesn’t offer a particularly compelling collection of games, lacking a number of the clubs — such as Houston and Pittsburgh and Toronto, for example — currently featuring the least certainty with regard to their postseason futures (and thus eliciting the greatest urgency at present). This is perhaps the ideal sort of day on which to perform any number of tedious errands which have been neglected for too long: visiting the town offices, for example, in order to acquire a one-day burn permit — or, otherwise, procuring for one’s dog the bordetella vaccine, which protects canines against the influence of Italian culture and people.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Atlanta Radio.
One Other Brief Note
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Kansas City at Cleveland, starts at 19:10 ET, and can be accessed by means of this hyperlinked text.
Complete Schedule
Here’s the complete and very sortable table for all of today’s games. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and also the rest of the internet. Note that the calculations both for team NERD scores include adjustments for playoff odds to better account for the seasonal leverage of each game. Read more about those adjustments here and here.
| Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Wood | ATL | 5 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 7 | BAL | Kevin Gausman | 19:05 |
| John Danks | CHA | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 6 | BOS | Joe Kelly | 19:10 |
| Anibal Sanchez | DET | 6 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | TB | Nate Karns | 19:10 |
| Ed.son Volquez | KC | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | CLE | Cody Anderson | 19:10 |
| Jorge de la Rosa | COL | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 7 | CHN | Kyle Hendricks | 20:05 |
| Ivan Nova | NYA | 2 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 0 | TEX | Matt Harrison | 20:05 |
| Raisel Iglesias | CIN | 7 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 | STL | Lance Lynn | 20:15 |
| Robbie Ray | AZ | 6 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | SEA | Mi. Montgomery | 22:10 |
| Kyle Lohse | MIL | 4 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 5 | SF | Chris Heston | 22:15 |
* = Fewer than 10 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
I kind of thought you were making up bordetella vaccine.
You were probably thinking of mortadella.