NERD Game Scores for Sunday, September 6, 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
Minnesota at Houston | 14:10 ET
Duffey (25.2 IP, 114 xFIP-) vs. Keuchel (192.2 IP, 68 xFIP-)
The first installment in this series was a legitimately entertaining one, featuring a combined 19 strikeouts from the starters, a bases-loaded diving catch by Byron Buxton to end the game, and the highest average leverage index among all Saturday’s contests by some margin — a fact illustrated somewhat unnecessarily by the table below.

Top-Five Average Leverage Indices, 9/5/15

	Game	aLI
1	MIN @ HOU	1.74
2	TEX @ LAA	1.36
3	TBR @ NYY	1.29
4	MIL @ CIN	1.25
5	LAD @ SDP	1.23

Can one guarantee that this afternoon’s encounter will offer the same combination of thrill and delight? Of course not. Indeed, as research shows, only three things are certain in this world: death, taxes, and uncles who, upon being asked to estimate the likelihood of such-and-such an event, declare that there are only two things which are certain this world.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Houston Television.

Another Brief Note
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Milwaukee at Cincinnati, starts at 13:10 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
Chris Archer	TB	10	4	7	10	2	NYA	Ivan Nova	13:05
Chris Tillman	BAL	3	4	6	10	2	TOR	Marco Estrada	13:07
Cody Anderson	CLE	5	4	4	4	4	DET	Justin Verlander	13:08
Jimmy Nelson	MIL	5	4	4	4	4	CIN	Mi. Lorenzen	13:10
Steven Matz	NYN	8	5	5	4	5	MIA	Jarred Cosart	13:10
Manuel Banuelos	ATL	1	3	4	5	9	WAS	Joe Ross	13:35
Jerad Eickhoff	PHI	5	3	4	4	7	BOS	Eduardo Rodriguez	13:35
Erik Johnson*	CHA	7	4	5	4	7	KC	Johnny Cueto	14:10
Tyler Duffey	MIN	3	6	7	9	9	HOU	Dallas Keuchel	14:10
Rubby de la Rosa	AZ	7	4	5	4	8	CHN	Kyle Hendricks	14:20
Colby Lewis	TEX	3	9	6	5	3	LAA	Hector Santiago	15:35
Hisashi Iwakuma	SEA	7	4	4	4	4	OAK	Sean Nolin*	16:05
Brett Anderson	LAN	6	4	5	4	7	SD	Andrew Cashner	16:10
Ma.n Bumgarner	SF	10	4	5	4	4	COL	Yohan Flande	16:10
Gerrit Cole	PIT	10	5	6	5	5	STL	John Lackey	20:05

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