NERD Game Scores for Sunday, August 31, 2014

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
Milwaukee at San Francisco | 16:05 ET
Kyle Lohse (165.2 IP, 109 xFIP-, 1.7 WAR) faces Madison Bumgarner (185.0 IP, 78 xFIP-, 3.5 WAR). While the Giants have won the first two games of their series against the Brewers, the Dodgers have lost their first two games in San Diego. The result: a net gain of over 10 percentage points for San Francisco to their chances of winning the division — a gain which is perhaps most effectively depicted by the GIF below featuring the standings and playoff odds for all NL West clubs both from two days ago and then also this morning. (Click to enlarge instantly.)

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: San Francisco Radio or Television.

Lone, Brief Note
Regarding Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features the same Milwaukee and San Francisco clubs discussed briefly 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 changes here, if you’re the sort of person accustomed to making poor life decisions.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Bran’n McCarthy	NYA	10	4	5	4	4	TOR	J.A. Happ	13:07
A.J. Burnett	PHI	3	2	2	2	3	NYN	Dillon Gee	13:10
Johnny Cueto	CIN	7	2	6	9	8	PIT	Francisco Liriano	13:35
Ricky Nolasco	MIN	4	3	4	4	5	BAL	Wei-Yin Chen	13:35
Clay Buchholz	BOS	3	3	4	4	7	TB	Alex Cobb	13:40
Rick Porcello	DET	6	8	5	2	6	CHA	Jose Quintana	14:10
Nick Martinez	TEX	0	3	4	4	7	HOU	Dallas Keuchel	14:10
Travis Wood	CHN	1	4	6	9	7	STL	John Lackey	14:15
Scott Kazmir	OAK	6	10	7	5	8	LAA	Ma. Shoemaker	15:35
Kyle Lohse	MIL	4	10	9	10	10	SF	Ma’son Bum’r	16:05
Jorge de la Rosa	COL	2	3	3	3	5	AZ	Chase Anderson	16:10
Hyun-Jin Ryu	LAN	7	5	5	3	4	SD	Eric Stults	16:10
Tanner Roark	WAS	5	4	6	6	8	SEA	His. Iwakuma	16:10
Nathan Eovaldi	MIA	8	4	6	6	7	ATL	Alex Wood	17:10
T.J. House	CLE	9	5	7	10	3	KC	Danny Duffy	20:07

To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.