NERD Game Scores for Thursday, September 24, 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
Cleveland at Minnesota | 20:10 ET
Anderson (77.2 IP, 111 xFIP-) vs. Gibson (186.0 IP, 100 xFIP-)
No second-place club is currently within fewer than three games of their respective division’s first-place club. Between that and an abbreviated Thursday schedule, none of tonight’s matchups feature much in the way of stirring consequences. The closest thing to urgency? Minnesota’s pursuit of the American League’s second wild-card spot. The Twins sit merely a game behind the Astros for the opportunity to participate in the play-in contest. Tonight represents an opportunity not only to observe how the club fares in that endeavor, but also to observe two of the AL’s most productive rookies, Cleveland’s Francisco Lindor (3.8 WAR) and Minnesota’s Miguel Sano (2.1 WAR). And for those among us who have a state car inspection scheduled for 5:30pm at the region’s best and/or only Nissan dealership, tonight also represents an opportunity to pass an hour acting out a strange, one-man performance of Sartre’s No Exit in that same dealership’s poorly lit waiting room.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Cleveland Radio.

Another Brief Note
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Arizona at Los Angeles NL, starts at 15:10 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
Patrick Corbin	AZ	9	5	6	5	10	LAN	Clayton Kershaw	15:10
Jeff Locke	PIT	6	6	5	4	5	COL	Chad Bettis	15:10
Cole Hamels	TEX	8	7	6	4	5	OAK	Chris Bassitt	15:35
Tyler Wilson	BAL	0	5	4	5	4	WAS	Tanner Roark	16:05
Chris Sale	CHA	10	4	6	6	10	NYA	Michael Pineda	19:05
Steven Matz	NYN	7	5	4	4	0	CIN	Josh Smith	19:10
Alec Asher	PHI	1	4	4	4	4	MIA	Jarred Cosart	19:10
Erasmo Ramirez	TB	7	4	5	4	5	BOS	Wade Miley	19:10
Taylor Jungmann	MIL	4	4	5	5	8	STL	Michael Wacha	19:15
Cody Anderson	CLE	5	5	6	7	4	MIN	Kyle Gibson	20:10
James Paxton	SEA	5	4	5	4	7	KC	Johnny Cueto	20:10
Ma.n Bumgarner	SF	9	4	5	4	6	SD	Ian Kennedy	21:10

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