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.

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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.

NERD Image 4

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.

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HappyFunBall
8 years ago

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!

Well-Beered Englishman
8 years ago
Reply to  HappyFunBall

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.

Ballfan
8 years ago

with 81 pitches too right?

I once posted as Ruben Amaro Jr.
8 years ago
Reply to  Ballfan

*81 swing-and-misses

Urban Shocker
8 years ago
Reply to  Ballfan

he has yet to throw a Maddux this season. harumph.

Wobatus
8 years ago

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.”

Well-Beered Englishman
8 years ago
Reply to  Wobatus

Your daughter is very perceptive.