NERD Game Scores for Sunday, August 16, 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
Washington at San Francisco | 16:05 ET
Ross (49.2 IP, 82 xFIP-) vs. Bumgarner (154.1 IP, 80 xFIP-)
As one grows older and feels more acutely the baleful gravity of life, he’s more liable to begrudge those who experience success without any of the attendant struggle. One might expect, in light of this tendency, to find that right-hander Joe Ross has become the object of universal derision. Consider: over the first 49.2 innings of his career as a major leaguer, Ross has produced decidedly better-than-average fielding-independent and run-prevention numbers — and, with the exception of his most recent appearance, has conceded no more than three runs in any of his eight starts. He has, unlike the founders of Kansas, found his way to the stars without difficulties. And yet, a brief examination by the author of his interior self, reveals no contempt at all for Joe Ross. Both his Nationals and also Madison Bumgarner’s Giants currently possess divisional odds somewhere between 20% and 50% (using the season-to-date stats methodology).

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: San Francisco Radio or Television.

Two Brief Notes
Matt Boyd to Start
Left-hander Matt Boyd, a fixture within the author’s weekly Fringe Five column this season and also recent acquisition of the Detroit Tigers, is scheduled to start for that club in Houston at 14:10 ET today. He produced a 6:1 K:BB versus 24 batters over 5.1 innings his last appearance.

Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features the same Washington and San Francisco 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
Luis Severino	NYA	9	8	8	9	7	TOR	Drew Hutchison	13:07
Jeff Locke	PIT	5	10	8	6	9	NYN	Matt Harvey	13:10
Rub. de la Rosa	AZ	8	5	5	2	7	ATL	Shelby Miller	13:35
Ken. Graveman	OAK	4	3	5	7	5	BAL	Wei-Yin Chen	13:35
Vidal Nuno*	SEA	6	3	3	3	0	BOS	Henry Owens	13:35
Dan Haren	CHN	3	9	6	2	10	CHA	Chris Sale	14:10
Carlos Carrasco	CLE	10	4	5	3	3	MIN	Tommy Milone	14:10
Matt Boyd	DET	6	2	5	8	3	HOU	Mike Fiers	14:10
Aaron Harang	PHI	2	2	3	2	5	MIL	Taylor Jungmann	14:10
David Phelps	MIA	2	3	4	4	10	STL	Carlos Martinez	14:15
Drew Smyly	TB	10	4	5	4	2	TEX	Yovani Gallardo	15:05
Joe Ross	WAS	10	7	9	10	9	SF	Ma.n Bumgarner	16:05
An. DeSclafani	CIN	5	3	6	9	6	LAN	Zack Greinke	16:10
Ian Kennedy	SD	5	3	4	3	6	COL	Chris Rusin	16:10
Hector Santiago	LAA	4	8	6	3	8	KC	Yordano Ventura	20:08

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