NERD Game Scores for Sunday, September 14, 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
Los Angeles NL at San Francisco | 16:05 ET
Clayton Kershaw (177.1 IP, 56 xFIP-, 6.3 WAR) faces Yusmeiro Petit (99.1 IP, 78 xFIP-, 1.4 WAR). It was either Socrates or one of Socrates’s Athenian friends who stated that one ought either “to ball hard, or not ball at all.” What the Giants did on Saturday against the visiting Dodgers was to apply that adage to losing — insofar, that is, as they lost really hard. San Francisco entered the game trailing their opponents by a single game and featuring about 24% odds of winning the division. As of this morning, that figure is closest to 15%. Still, not inconsequential, that.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Almost All of Them.
Lone, Brief Note
Regarding Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Cincinnati at Milwaukee, starts at 2:10pm 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 changes here, if you’re the sort of person accustomed to making poor life decisions.
| Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Archer | TB | 7 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | TOR | Mark Buehrle | 13:07 |
| Trevor Bauer | CLE | 7 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 5 | DET | Justin Verlander | 13:08 |
| Jo. Zimmermann | WAS | 10 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 7 | NYN | Jon Niese | 13:10 |
| Jacob Turner | CHN | 7 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 3 | PIT | Edinson Volquez | 13:35 |
| Tom Koehler | MIA | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | PHI | David Buchanan | 13:35 |
| Joe Kelly | BOS | 4 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 5 | KC | Jason Vargas | 14:10 |
| Mike Leake | CIN | 7 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | MIL | Matt Garza | 14:10 |
| Trevor May | MIN | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | CHA | Hector Noesi | 14:10 |
| Jordan Lyles | COL | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | STL | Marco Gonzales | 14:15 |
| Mike Minor | ATL | 7 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | TEX | Colby Lewis | 15:05 |
| Dallas Keuchel | HOU | 8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | LAA | Hector Santiago | 15:35 |
| Clayton Kershaw | LAN | 10 | 5 | 8 | 10 | 9 | SF | Yusmeiro Petit | 16:05 |
| Jon Lester | OAK | 8 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 1 | SEA | Chris Young | 16:10 |
| Od. Despaigne | SD | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | AZ | Trevor Cahill | 16:10 |
| Hiroki Kuroda | NYA | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | BAL | Chris Tillman | 20:00 |
To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.