NERD Game Scores for Saturday, September 5, 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
Minnesota at Houston | 19:10 ET
Santana (65.0 IP, 120 xFIP-) vs. McCullers (89.2 IP, 88 xFIP-)
The abstract concept of Decency requires one, somehow finding him- or herself newly in receipt of a time machine, to employ that time machine to the end of traveling back to late-19th century Austria-Hungary and duly offing an infant Adolf Hitler. Following a similar course of action for child Pol Pot and child Stalin might also be regarded as good form. After the most notable of murderous tyrants have been treated thusly, however, one might also consider returning to April 4th of this year and explaining to the people that September 5th’s Twins-Astros game would have some relevance to the postseason landscape. Then, finally — after being derided openly by the public — capture Napoleon from a battlefield and introduce him to a modern water park in California.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Houston Television.

Another Brief Note
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Los Angeles NL at San Diego, starts at 20:40 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
Matt Moore	TB	1	4	6	10	8	NYA	Nathan Eovaldi	13:05
Mike Wright	BAL	1	4	6	10	7	TOR	David Price	13:07
Matt Garza	MIL	4	4	5	4	10	CIN	John Lamb	13:10
Wily Peralta	MIL	4	4	4	4	4	CIN	Keyvius Sampson	18:10
Robbie Ray	AZ	5	4	5	4	9	CHN	Jake Arrieta	14:20
Alec Asher*	PHI	6	3	4	4	5	BOS	Wade Miley	16:05
Charlie Morton	PIT	7	5	6	5	6	STL	Jaime Garcia	16:05
Shelby Miller	ATL	7	3	5	5	6	WAS	Gio Gonzalez	19:05
Danny Salazar	CLE	10	4	5	4	2	DET	Alfredo Simon	19:08
Jose Quintana	CHA	7	3	4	4	3	KC	Danny Duffy	19:10
Ervin Santana	MIN	4	6	7	8	8	HOU	Lance McCullers	19:10
Bartolo Colon	NYN	6	5	5	4	4	MIA	Brad Hand	19:10
Jake Peavy	SF	2	4	4	4	5	COL	Chad Bettis	20:10
Alex Wood	LAN	5	4	5	4	8	SD	Tyson Ross	20:40
Felix Hernandez	SEA	8	4	5	4	5	OAK	Jesse Chavez	21:05
Derek Holland	TEX	8	8	6	5	3	LAA	Jered Weaver	21:05

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