NERD Game Scores for Thursday, May 15, 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 Diego at Cincinnati | 12:35 ET
Ian Kennedy (49.0 IP, 71 xFIP-, 1.3 WAR) faces Johnny Cueto (63.0 IP, 71 xFIP-, 1.1 WAR). In addition to having produced uncharacteristically excellent defense-independent numbers, the latter has also recorded a 99.5% left-on-base rate. By comparison, league average typically sits at ca. 73%. For further comparison, the best single-season mark among qualified starters since 2002 is 85.2%, care of then-Philadelphian J.A. Happ.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Cincinnati Radio.

Two Brief Notes
Pitching Debutants Debuting in Queens, New York
The starters for both the Mets and Yankees make their respective major-league debuts today. One can read incrementally more about that in today’s edition of the Prospect Watch.

Cleveland-Toronto Is Today’s Free Game
It begins at 7:07pm 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.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Ian Kennedy	SD	8	3	7	4	9	CIN	Johnny Cueto	12:35
Tyson Ross	SD	7	3	5	4	5	CIN	Undecided*	18:10
Clay Buchholz	BOS	3	2	4	4	6	MIN	Phil Hughes	13:10
Wandy Rodriguez	PIT	5	7	4	6	2	MIL	Yovani Gallardo	13:10
Jason Hammel	CHN	5	5	7	3	10	STL	Michael Wacha	13:45
Danny Salazar	CLE	8	5	6	7	3	TOR	J.A. Happ*	19:07
Chase Whitley*	NYA	8	5	6	3	6	NYN	Jacob DeGrom*	19:10
Wei-Yin Chen	BAL	5	3	6	3	10	KC	Yordano Ventura	20:10
Erik Bedard	TB	0	6	4	9	5	LAA	Tyler Skaggs	22:05
Nathan Eovaldi	MIA	10	9	7	7	3	SF	Matt Cain	22:15

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