NERD Game Scores for Thursday, September 25, 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
Seattle at Toronto | 16:07 ET
Tom Wilhelmsen (77.0 IP, 94 xFIP-, 0.2 WAR) faces Daniel Norris (124.2 IP, 32.5% K, 8.6% BB in Minors). This game, despite featuring little — one might reasonably say just 0.4% — in the way of playoff implications, does represent the left-handed Norris’s first major-league start. A second-round pick in 2011 by Toronto out of a Tennessee high school, Norris entered the season having exhibited both excellent moments and also command issues during his minor-league career. After recording promising figures both at High- and Double-A this season, though, he transformed essentially into a starting version of Aroldis Chapman with Triple-A Buffalo, with which club he produced strikeout and walk rates of 44.7% and 9.4%, respectively, over five appearances and 22.2 innings.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Toronto Radio.

Lone, Brief Note
Regarding Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Baltimore at New York AL, starts at 7:05pm 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
Yovani Gallardo	MIL	5	4	4	3	3	CIN	David Holmberg*	12:35
Dillon Gee	NYN	4	4	4	4	6	WAS	Blake Treinen	13:05
Zack Wheeler	NYN	9	4	5	4	8	WAS	Gio Gonzalez	19:05
Tom Wilhelmsen*	SEA	9	4	8	4	25	TOR	Daniel Norris*	16:07
David Buchanan	PHI	5	4	4	4	5	MIA	Tom Koehler	16:10
Kevin Gausman	BAL	7	4	5	4	5	NYA	Hiroki Kuroda	19:05
Trevor May	MIN	6	4	5	5	9	DET	Max Scherzer	19:08
Edinson Volquez	PIT	3	10	6	4	4	ATL	David Hale	19:10
Jeremy Hellickson	TB	4	4	4	4	3	BOS	Allen Webster	19:10
Jason Hammel	OAK	7	10	7	4	5	TEX	Colby Lewis	20:05
James Shields	KC	7	10	7	4	7	CHA	Jose Quintana	20:10
Andrew Cashner	SD	9	4	8	10	9	SF	Yusmeiro Petit	22:15

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