NERD Game Scores: Featuring the Very Winning Royals

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
Oakland at Kansas City | 20:10 ET
Sonny Gray (150.1 IP, 90 xFIP-, 2.6 WAR) faces Yordano Ventura (127.0 IP, 93 xFIP-, 1.8 WAR). As great American explorer Jeff Sullivan noted earlier this morning in these same pages, the Royals have now won seven games in a row and also 15 of 18. Regardless of what that does or doesn’t say about the club’s true talent, what it means is they now possess a better than 20% chance of winning the AL Central — and nearly a 30% chance overall of qualifying for the divisional series. Tonight perhaps their youngest, most talented starter faces Oakland’s probably youngest, most talented starter.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Oakland Radio?

Two Brief Notes
Debut Report: Cleveland’s Walters
In his debut for Cleveland after having been traded to that club from Washington, infielder/outfielder Zach Walters produced the following line whilst playing left field (box): 4 PA, 1 BB, 1 K, 0 HR, 0 H.

Regarding Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Minnesota at the Houstons, starts at 8:10pm 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 and game NERD scores have changed recently to better integrate playoff odds into same. Read more about those changes here, if you’re the sort of person accustomed to making poor life decisions.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Jon Niese	NYN	5	2	3	2	4	PHI	D. Buchanan	13:05
Justin Verlander	DET	3	6	6	8	7	PIT	Jeff Locke	19:05
Chris Capuano*	NYA	7	4	5	6	3	BAL	Bud Norris	19:05
Kevin Correia	LAN	0	4	5	7	7	ATL	Julio Teheran	19:10
Shelby Miller	STL	3	8	5	4	3	MIA	Tom Koehler	19:10
Yovani Gallardo	MIL	4	10	6	3	8	CHN	Jake Arrieta	20:05
Drew Smyly	TB	6	4	4	3	3	TEX	Colby Lewis	20:05
Tommy Milone	MIN	2	3	3	4	3	HOU	Brad Peacock	20:10
Sonny Gray	OAK	7	5	7	8	10	KC	Yo. Ventura	20:10
Jordan Lyles	COL	4	4	4	3	7	SD	Jesse Hahn	22:10
Drew Hutchison	TOR	6	7	7	5	10	SEA	F’lix Hernandez	22:10

To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.