NERD Game Scores for Friday, October 2, 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
Houston at Arizona | 21:40 ET
Keuchel (226.0 IP, 66 xFIP-) vs. de la Rosa (185.2 IP, 104 xFIP-)
The Angels and Astros, currently separated by a single win, currently feature a roughly 25% probability of producing the same regular-season record and necessitating the addition of a one-game playoff for the right to appear in the normal, regularly scheduled one-game playoff.

By way of comparison, and to better illustrate the likelihood of such a contingency, here are some events which have occurred less than a quarter of the time in 2015:

• Aramis Ramirez — or any of other 25 qualified players, actually — finished an at-bat with a base hit.
• Right-hander Shelby Miller, despite all manner of proficiency, recorded a win for his start.
• Your grandfather left sufficient gratuity for service at a restaurant.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Houston Television.

Another Brief Note
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game is every game, actually, 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
Key. Sampson	CIN	2	5	5	5	8	PIT	Fran. Liriano	19:05
Justin Nicolino	MIA	1	5	4	5	1	PHI	Aaron Harang	19:05
Luis Severino	NYA	8	5	6	5	6	BAL	Wei-Yin Chen	19:05
Henry Owens	BOS	4	5	5	5	6	CLE	Josh Tomlin	19:10
Mark Buehrle	TOR	5	5	5	5	7	TB	Erasmo Ramirez	19:10
Gio Gonzalez	WAS	7	5	6	5	10	NYN	N. Syndergaard	19:10
Jaime Garcia	STL	6	5	5	5	5	ATL	Julio Teheran	19:35
Jered Weaver	LAA	2	6	5	5	6	TEX	Martin Perez	20:05
Jake Arrieta	CHN	10	5	5	5	3	MIL	Ariel Pena	20:10
Alfredo Simon	DET	2	5	5	5	10	CHA	Chris Sale	20:10
Chris Young	KC	1	5	5	6	5	MIN	Ervin Santana	20:10
Dallas Keuchel	HOU	9	8	7	5	7	AZ	Ru. de la Rosa	21:40
Aaron Brooks	OAK	5	5	5	5	8	SEA	Hisashi Iwakuma	22:10
Casey Kelly*	SD	5	5	5	5	5	LAN	Alex Wood	22:10
Kyle Kendrick	COL		5	4	5	4	SF	Chris Heston	22:15

* = Fewer than 10 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.