NERD Game Scores for Monday, September 21, 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
New York AL at Toronto | 19:07 ET
Warren (119.0 IP, 100 xFIP-) vs. Price (208.1 IP, 80 xFIP-)
Following Sunday’s loss by Toronto and victory by New York, the latter club trails the former by a mere 2.5 games now in the AL East — or, precisely 0.5 games fewer than the length of the series which begins tonight between the two clubs. Indeed, the Yankees could potentially enter Thursday with a half-game lead of their own — or, alternatively, a 5.5-game deficit. Or a 3.5-game deficit, too. Or a 1.5-game deficit, actually. Barring the unforeseen, these are the four possible outcomes. Including the unforeseen, the outcomes become considerably more numerous.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Toronto Radio.

Two Brief Notes
Belated and Maybe Unnecessary Matt Boyd Update
What the purpose of this brief entry is, is to report that Fringe Five co-champion and Detroit left-hander Matt Boyd produced a mostly successful start on Saturday of this weekend. Despite conceding two home runs (his 13th and 14th of the season in just 48.2 innings, unfortunately), Boyd allowed just the two runs overall while also recording a 6:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio against 21 batters over 6.0 innings.

Here’s a brief film documenting the concluding pitches from three of those strikeouts:

Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Los Angeles AL at Houston, starts at 20:10 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 adjustments here and here.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Je. Samardzija	CHA	7	4	4	4	4	DET	Kyle Ryan	13:08
Erik Johnson	CHA	2	4	3	4	2	DET	Randy Wolf	19:08
Ub. Jimenez	BAL	6	4	5	5	6	WAS	Gio Gonzalez	19:05
Adam Warren	NYA	3	8	7	8	8	TOR	David Price	19:07
Shelby Miller	ATL	7	4	5	4	5	NYN	Jon Niese	19:10
Chris Archer	TB	10	4	5	4	7	BOS	Ed. Rodriguez	19:10
Wily Peralta	MIL	4	4	4	4	7	CHN	Jason Hammel	20:05
Jered Weaver	LAA	2	6	7	10	9	HOU	Dallas Keuchel	20:10
John Lamb	CIN	8	4	5	5	6	STL	Jaime Garcia	20:15
A.J. Burnett	PIT	5	6	5	4	7	COL	Jonathan Gray	20:40
Jhoulys Chacin	AZ	4	4	4	4	6	LAN	Brett Anderson	22:10

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