NERD Game Scores for Sunday, September 21, 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 Pittsburgh | 13:35 ET
Wily Peralta (184.2 IP, 101 xFIP-, 1.0 WAR) faces Vance Worley (96.1 IP, 98 xFIP-, 0.9 WAR). The Brewers entered play yesterday with just a 1% probability of qualifying for the play-in game, odds which increased to ca. 3% following the club’s 1-0 victory over the Pirates on Saturday (box). Did their odds triple, or improve by two mere percentage points? How the reader answers that question is illustrative of his/her view of the world.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Milwaukee Radio*.

*Unless Bob Uecker hasn’t traveled. In which case: Milwaukee Television?

Lone, Brief Note
Regarding Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features the Chicago Americans at Tampa Bay, starts at 1:40pm 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
Drew Hutchison	TOR	8	4	5	3	10	NYA	Masahiro Tanaka	13:05
Stephen Strasburg	WAS	10	4	6	4	10	MIA	Nathan Eovaldi	13:10
Joe Kelly	BOS	4	4	4	4	3	BAL	Miguel Gonzalez	13:35
Wily Peralta	MIL	8	4	7	10	6	PIT	Vance Worley	13:35
Jacob deGrom	NYN	10	3	5	4	8	ATL	Ervin Santana	13:35
John Danks	CHA	3	3	4	4	8	TB	Nate Karns*	13:40
Corey Kluber	CLE	10	4	5	4	4	MIN	Anthony Swarzak*	14:10
Rick Porcello	DET	7	5	7	10	4	KC	Jeremy Guthrie	14:10
Hisashi Iwakuma	SEA	10	7	7	4	8	HOU	Collin McHugh	14:10
Jamey Wright*	LAN	6	4	5	4	6	CHN	Jacob Turner	14:20
Nick Tepesch	TEX	2	4	4	4	6	LAA	Cory Rasmus*	15:35
A.J. Burnett	PHI	5	4	7	10	7	OAK	Scott Kazmir	16:05
Wade Miley	AZ	8	4	4	4	3	COL	Christian Bergman	16:10
Ryan Vogelsong	SF	3	10	7	4	8	SD	Ian Kennedy	16:10
Alfredo Simon	CIN	6	3	4	4	5	STL	Lance Lynn	20:05

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