NERD Game Scores for Sunday, September 20, 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
Oakland (Brooks) at Houston (McHugh) | 14:10 ET
Seattle (Hernandez) at Texas (Holland) | 15:05 ET
Today’s most highly rated game is a combination of two games, each involving the pair of clubs (Houston, Texas) situated nearest the top of the AL West standings. Logic suggests that the ideal way to consume them would be to watch whichever of the two featured a higher leverage index at the moment. As history reveals, however, logic suggests a number of ideas that, while theoretically sound, fail in practice.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Houston Television and Texas Radio.

Another Brief Note
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Miami and Washington, starts at 13:35 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
Rich Hill*	BOS	7	4	6	7	5	TOR	Mark Buehrle	13:07
Kris Medlen	KC	4	4	4	4	2	DET	Alfredo Simon	13:08
Kevin Gausman	BAL	8	4	5	4	6	TB	Jake Odorizzi	13:10
John Danks	CHA	4	4	5	5	8	CLE	Josh Tomlin	13:10
Justin Nicolino	MIA	2	4	5	5	10	WAS	St. Strasburg	13:35
Aaron Nola	PHI	7	4	5	4	5	ATL	Julio Teheran	13:35
Ant. DeSclafani	CIN	6	4	4	4	3	MIL	Ariel Pena	14:10
Matt Shoemaker	LAA	5	7	6	5	6	MIN	Tyler Duffey	14:10
Aaron Brooks	OAK	5	4	6	10	5	HOU	Collin McHugh	14:10
Carlos Martinez	STL	10	6	6	5	7	CHN	Jon Lester	14:10
Felix Hernandez	SEA	8	4	6	8	5	TEX	Derek Holland	15:05
Jer. Hellickson	AZ	3	5	4	4	5	SF	Tim Hudson	16:05
Gerrit Cole	PIT	10	6	6	4	5	LAN	Mike Bolsinger	16:10
James Shields	SD	6	4	4	4	0	COL	Kyle Kendrick	16:10
CC Sabathia	NYA	5	7	6	4	10	NYN	Matt Harvey	20:08

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