NERD Game Scores for Saturday, September 12, 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
Toronto at New York AL | TBA
Stroman (Season Debut) vs. Nova (74.0 IP, 115 xFIP-)
With their victory over the Yankees on Friday, the Blue Jays have put some metaphorical space atop the AL East between themselves and that same New York club. As for literal space, that remains mostly the same. In either case, what today represents, besides another encounter between two clubs competing for the division lead, is the season debut of beloved Toronto right-hander Marcus Stroman. This past February, Jeff Sullivan found that basically every pitch in Stroman’s repertoire is most similar to some kind of ace’s best pitch: Roy Halladay‘s sinker, Johnny Cueto‘s four-seamer, Jose Fernandez’s curveball, etc. A month later, Stroman had torn his ACL and was doubtful to return at all in 2015. The clear lesson: don’t permit Jeff Sullivan to render your name into print form.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Toronto Radio.

Another Brief Note
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Washington at Miami, starts at 19:10 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
Yo. Ventura	KC	9	4	5	4	4	BAL	Chris Tillman	13:05
Lance Lynn	STL	5	7	6	4	6	CIN	Ant. DeSclafani	13:05
Marco Estrada	TOR	2	9	8	9	10	NYA	Michael Pineda	13:05
Marcus Stroman*	TOR	13	9	9	9	2	NYA	Ivan Nova	TBD
Rick Porcello	BOS	6	4	4	4	1	TB	Matt Moore	18:10
Dan Haren	CHN	3	5	4	3	3	PHI	Jerad Eickhoff	19:05
Zachary Davies	MIL	9	4	6	6	6	PIT	Jeff Locke	19:05
Justin Verlander	DET	4	4	5	5	5	CLE	Cody Anderson	19:10
Tommy Milone	MIN	4	7	6	4	7	CHA	Jose Quintana	19:10
No. Syndergaard	NYN	10	4	5	4	2	ATL	Williams Perez	19:10
Tanner Roark	WAS	3	4	5	4	10	MIA	Jose Fernandez	19:10
Sean Nolin*	OAK	5	4	6	9	2	TEX	Yovani Gallardo	20:05
Mike Bolsinger	LAN	5	4	5	4	7	AZ	Rubby de la Rosa	20:10
Lance McCullers	HOU	9	10	7	5	2	LAA	Hector Santiago	21:05
Ian Kennedy	SD	6	4	5	4	9	SF	Ma.n Bumgarner	21:05
Yohan Flande	COL	4	4	4	4	5	SEA	Roenis Elias	21:10

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