NERD Game Scores for Friday, June 27, 2014

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
Cincinnati at San Francisco | 22:15 ET
Johnny Cueto (116.0 IP, 77 xFIP-, 2.6 WAR) faces Madison Bumgarner (102.2 IP, 78 xFIP-, 2.1 WAR). An idle and largely superficial inspection of the latter’s player profile reveals that, despite having recorded over 800 innings and 15 wins, that Madison Bumgarner is still just 24 years old — and remains that way for another month-plus. A stirring accomplishment, that — and yet not enough to prevent the sun from expanding and swallowing earth whole in five billion years.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: San Francisco Radio or Television.

Two Brief Notes
The Relevance of Matt Shoemaker to Tonight
Anaheim right-hander Matt Shoemaker, celebrated recently in these pages by the author and even more recently by gregarious stuntman Eno Sarris, starts tonight at 8:10pm ET against the Royals, where he will make more outs than shoes, one imagines.

Regarding Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Colorado at Milwaukee, 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.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Alex Colome*	TB	6	6	6	5	7	BAL	Kevin Gausman	13:05
Jake Odorizzi	TB	7	6	4	5	1	BAL	Chris Tillman	19:05
Tanner Roark	WAS	4	8	6	5	7	CHN	Jason Hammel	16:05
Julio Teheran	ATL	6	7	4	1	1	PHI	Kyle Kendrick	19:05
B. Workman	BOS	3	3	4	3	5	NYA	Vidal Nuno	19:05
Jacob deGrom	NYN	5	2	5	5	6	PIT	Brandon Cumpton	19:05
John Danks	CHA	1	2	5	7	8	TOR	R.A. Dickey	19:07
Jesse Chavez	OAK	6	7	6	7	4	MIA	A. DeSclafani	19:10
Kevin Correia	MIN	0	3	2	3	2	TEX	Nick Tepesch	20:05
Tyler Matzek*	COL	4	10	5	7	4	MIL	Kyle Lohse	20:10
Justin Verlander	DET	3	4	4	6	3	HOU	Brad Peacock	20:10
Matt Shoemaker	LAA	9	5	6	5	4	KC	Jason Vargas	20:10
Brandon McCarthy	AZ	9	6	7	4	7	SD	Tyson Ross	22:10
Trevor Bauer	CLE	7	6	4	5	0	SEA	Chris Young	22:10
Carlos Martinez*	STL	7	3	6	5	5	LAN	Hyun-Jin Ryu	22:10
Johnny Cueto	CIN	8	4	8	6	9	SF	M. Bumgarner	22:15

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