NERD Game Scores for Friday, June 26, 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
Cleveland at Baltimore | 19:05 ET
Kluber (103.2 IP, 71 xFIP-) vs. Chen (81.0 IP, 98 xFIP-)
According to the hastily arranged computer math devised by the author, there are actually three games of similar hypothetical interest today: Reds at Mets (featuring Johnny Cueto and Noah Syndergaard), Yankees at Astros (featuring Nathan Eovaldi and Vincent Velasquez), and this one. The reader could choose any one of them, theoretically, and experience roughly similar levels of pleasure — pleasure which, it goes without saying, will dissipate shortly after the conclusion of said game, thus depositing the reader back into the ongoing production of Sartre’s No Exit to which life amounts.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Cleveland Radio.
Single, Brief Note
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Kansas City at Oakland, starts at 22:05 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 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Williams Perez | ATL | 3 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 10 | PIT | Francisco Liriano | 19:05 |
| Corey Kluber | CLE | 10 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 5 | BAL | Wei-Yin Chen | 19:05 |
| Max Scherzer | WAS | 10 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 2 | PHI | Aaron Harang | 19:05 |
| Nick Martinez | TEX | 2 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 4 | TOR | Mark Buehrle | 19:07 |
| Jose Quintana | CHA | 5 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 6 | DET | Anibal Sanchez | 19:08 |
| Rick Porcello | BOS | 5 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 4 | TB | Alex Colome | 19:10 |
| Johnny Cueto | CIN | 8 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 10 | NYN | Noah Syndergaard | 19:10 |
| Brett Anderson | LAN | 5 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | MIA | Justin Nicolino* | 19:10 |
| Trevor May | MIN | 7 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | MIL | Kyle Lohse | 20:10 |
| Nathan Eovaldi | NYA | 7 | 8 | 7 | 10 | 3 | HOU | Vincent Velasquez | 20:10 |
| Jake Arrieta | CHN | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | STL | John Lackey | 20:15 |
| Edinson Volquez | KC | 4 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 4 | OAK | Jesse Hahn | 22:05 |
| Taijuan Walker | SEA | 9 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 5 | LAA | Matt Shoemaker | 22:05 |
| Robbie Ray | AZ | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 8 | SD | Tyson Ross | 22:10 |
| Chad Bettis | COL | 6 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | SF | Tim Hudson | 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, for one, am excited to see if Scherzer can improve from 1-hitter, to no-hitter, to perfect game tonight vs. the hapless Phils!
Likewise. Perhaps next week he will pioneer the 27K perfecto, followed by a game in which he ascends from the pitching mound directly to the gates of heaven, accompanied by an ethereal choir singing a Bruckner mass from the clouds above the stadium.
with 81 pitches too right?
*81 swing-and-misses
he has yet to throw a Maddux this season. harumph.
I was listening to that game on the radio driving my family back from vacation. I was all psyched, 2 strikes on Tabata, telling my family we were listening to history being made. Then that scalawag Tabata leans into the pitch. HBP. Nooooo!
Then my 5 year old daughter in the back seat says: “Aww, better luck next time, daddy.”
Your daughter is very perceptive.