NERD Game Scores for Thursday, August 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
San Francisco at Chicago NL | 20:05 ET*
Madison Bumgarner (169.0 IP, 81 xFIP-, 3.0 WAR) faces Travis Wood (144.1 IP, 123 xFIP-, 1.2 WAR). Today’s games don’t scale the heights of intrigue like some recent contests have. In this case, however, one finds a Giants club that is among the closest of all major-league clubs to possessing exactly 50% odds of qualifying for the divisional series. As for the Chicagos, their virtues at the moment are less conspicuous. That said, very powerful infield prospect Javier Baez is likely to recorded four or five plate appearances, which means four or five opportunities for him to demonstrate his strong strength.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Basically Any of Them.

*The author, an idiot, originally assigned Detroit left-hander David Price to his former team, thus creating a matchup of Tampa Bay at Tampa Bay. The corrected version reveals that the Tigers and Rays’ game is actually today’s most highly rated.

Two Brief Notes
Playing Decently: San Francisco’s Joe Panik
The purpose of this note is to draw every reader’s attention to how Giants infielder and rookie Joe Panik is playing decently. Regard, his line: 133 PA, 7.5% BB, 11.3% K, .295/.346/.344 (.311 BABIP), 103 wRC+, 0.8 WAR.

Regarding Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Detroit at Tampa Bay, starts at 1:10pm 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
Dallas Keuchel	HOU	7	4	5	3	10	NYA	Brand. McCarthy	13:05
Corey Kluber	CLE	9	5	6	3	9	MIN	Phil Hughes	13:10
David Price	TB	9	8	7	4	7	TB	Alex Cobb	13:10
Wade Miley	AZ	8	3	5	4	7	WAS	Gio Gonzalez	16:05
Julio Teheran	ATL	6	7	5	2	3	CIN	David Holmberg*	19:10
Matt Shoemaker	LAA	9	7	6	3	5	BOS	Rubby de la Rosa	19:10
Mad. Bumgarner	SF	9	9	6	4	1	CHN	Travis Wood	20:05
Tyson Ross	SD	8	3	6	5	10	LAN	Clayton Kershaw	22:10

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