NERD Game Scores for Friday, August 14, 2015
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
New York AL at Toronto | 19:07 ET
Nova (46.0 IP, 109 xFIP-) vs. Price (161.0 IP, 84 xFIP-)
There’s a barbershop on Rue Beaubien in Montreal, very close to where the author is currently staying in that city, that’s full perpetually of young Latin American men and which features — somehow also perpetually — a live broadcast either of a Blue Jays or Yankees game on the shop’s large flat-screen television. How the proprietors of this business have influenced the space-time continuum in such a way so as to facilitate constant live feeds of the two aforementioned clubs — this is an unsolved mystery. Of less mystery is whether, when walking past the shop tonight, the author will find the aforementioned flat-screen tuned to the Yankees-Blue Jays game. Indications are that he will.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Toronto Radio.
Two Brief Notes
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Arizona at Atlanta, starts at 19:35 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 adjustments here and here.
| Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kyle Hendricks | CHN | 7 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 6 | CHA | Jeff Samardzija | 16:10 |
| Undecided | OAK | 5 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 6 | BAL | Ubaldo Jimenez | 19:05 |
| Ivan Nova | NYA | 3 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 7 | TOR | David Price | 19:07 |
| J.A. Happ | PIT | 5 | 10 | 7 | 6 | 6 | NYN | Bartolo Colon | 19:10 |
| M. Montgomery | SEA | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 6 | BOS | Joe Kelly | 19:10 |
| Robbie Ray | AZ | 6 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 5 | ATL | Julio Teheran | 19:35 |
| Nate Karns | TB | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 6 | TEX | Martin Perez | 20:05 |
| Corey Kluber | CLE | 10 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 7 | MIN | Trevor May | 20:10 |
| Alfredo Simon | DET | 3 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 8 | HOU | Dallas Keuchel | 20:10 |
| Jered Weaver | LAA | 4 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 2 | KC | Danny Duffy | 20:10 |
| Adam Morgan | PHI | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | MIL | Wily Peralta | 20:10 |
| Tom Koehler | MIA | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | STL | Jaime Garcia | 20:15 |
| Tyson Ross | SD | 8 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | COL | Yohan Flande | 20:40 |
| John Lamb* | CIN | 6 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 5 | LAN | Alex Wood | 22:10 |
| Max Scherzer | WAS | 10 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 3 | SF | Matt Cain | 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.
Sounds like a Twilight Zone episode.