NERD Game Scores for Friday, May 30, 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
San Francisco at St. Louis | 20:15 ET
Madison Bumgarner (65.2 IP, 79 xFIP-, 1.2 WAR) faces Adam Wainwright (81.0 IP, 77 xFIP-, 2.2 WAR). While a reasonable person might suppose otherwise, the innings figure published here for Wainwright actually is not a misprint: indeed, he (and three other pitchers, it appears) has already crossed the 80-inning threshold. Another threshold he’s crossed (alone in this case) is the three-win one — when calculating WAR by means of runs allowed, that is, and not FIP.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: San Francisco Radio or Television.

Two Brief Notes
Regarding Rafael Montero, His Most Recent Start
After two mediocre starts, Mets right-hander Rafael Montero was fantastic this past Sunday in his third, recording 10 strikeouts against 23 batters over 6.0 innings (box). Curiously, all but the last two of those (i.e. those strikeouts) appear to have been produced by means of Montero’s fastball — which assertion the following video appears to support.

Regarding Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Baltimore and Houston, 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
Juan Nicasio	COL	3	8	6	5	9	CLE	Corey Kluber	19:05
Ricky Nolasco	MIN	4	3	4	5	3	NYA	Vidal Nuno	19:05
Rafael Montero*	NYN	8	3	4	2	1	PHI	A.J. Burnett	19:05
Colby Lewis	TEX	3	2	6	6	10	WAS	Stephen Strasburg	19:05
Jason Vargas	KC	4	3	4	8	3	TOR	J.A. Happ	19:07
Julio Teheran	ATL	6	7	5	9	3	MIA	Tom Koehler	19:10
David Price	TB	9	6	7	2	7	BOS	Bran. Workman*	19:10
Miguel Gonzalez	BAL	3	4	4	7	5	HOU	Brett Oberholtzer	20:10
Travis Wood	CHN	3	5	4	5	5	MIL	Marco Estrada	20:10
Ian Kennedy	SD	8	6	5	3	2	CHA	John Danks	20:10
M. Bumgarner	SF	9	6	7	3	7	STL	Adam Wainwright	20:15
Mike Leake	CIN	5	3	5	5	5	AZ	Bronson Arroyo	21:40
Garrett Richards	LAA	8	9	7	6	6	OAK	Drew Pomeranz*	22:05
Justin Verlander	DET	2	5	4	5	6	SEA	Hisashi Iwakuma	22:10
Francisco Liriano	PIT	7	6	6	6	4	LAN	Josh Beckett	22:10

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