NERD Game Scores for Monday, September 14, 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 Texas | 20:05 ET
Kazmir (164.1 IP, 96 xFIP-) vs. Hamels (177.1 IP, 86 xFIP-)
What this game represents is an encounter between the two clubs in all of baseball most closely situated atop their respective division’s standings. Had the pair met a month ago, meanwhile, that’s not at all what this game would have represented — owing, that is, to how Texas was five games behind Houston and the Los Angeles Angels were also in second place. What one learns is that circumstances can change dramatically in a month. Like how they can change dramatically for an animal which endures a gestation period of a month or less. Or like how they can change for someone who has a single life-changing day, but for some reason — due probably to a neurological disorder about which Oliver Sacks has written — experiences time at roughly 1/30th the rate of the typical human.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Texas Radio.

Another Brief Note
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features the same Houston and Texas clubs cited above, 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
Ed. Rodriguez	BOS	7	4	5	4	8	BAL	Kevin Gausman	19:05
Jo. Zimmermann	WAS	7	4	4	3	6	PHI	Aaron Nola	19:05
Edinson Volquez	KC	4	4	5	5	10	CLE	Carlos Carrasco	19:10
Justin Nicolino	MIA	2	4	4	4	6	NYN	Logan Verrett*	19:10
CC Sabathia	NYA	5	7	6	4	6	TB	Erasmo Ramirez	19:10
Scott Kazmir	HOU	6	9	8	9	8	TEX	Cole Hamels	20:05
Kyle Lobstein	DET	4	4	5	7	6	MIN	Tyler Duffey	20:10
Sonny Gray	OAK	7	4	4	4	4	CHA	John Danks	20:10
James Shields	SD	6	4	4	4	3	AZ	Jer. Hellickson	21:40
Jonathan Gray	COL	7	4	5	4	10	LAN	Clayton Kershaw	22:10
Garrett Richards	LAA	7	5	6	4	10	SEA	Taijuan Walker	22:10
Keyvius Sampson	CIN	4	4	4	4	5	SF	Tim Hudson	22:15

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