NERD Game Scores for Tuesday, June 24, 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
Pittsburgh at Tampa Bay | 19:10 ET
Jeff Locke (26.1 IP, 81 xFIP-, 0.7 WAR) at Chris Archer (86.0 IP, 95 xFIP-, 2.0 WAR). The former entered last week’s game against Cincinnati with one of the most appealing aesthetic profiles of any major-league starter. Despite striking out only two of the 22 batters he faced in that same contest (box), Locke threw roughly two-thirds of his 83 pitches for strikes, worked quickly, and still exited the game with a swinging-strike rate this season (12.0%) superior to Madison Bumgarner‘s and Max Scherzer‘s and Zack Greinke‘s and Michael Wacha‘s and Yu Darvish’s.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Tampa Bay Radio.

Two Brief Notes
Regarding Hahn’s Curveball
Tonight allows one the opportunity to regard, live on tape, young San Diego right-hander Jesse Hahn’s curveball, superlative examples of which pitch one can find in the video below at 0:11, 0:25, 0:34, and 0:38:

Regarding Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features the Los Angeles Nationals at Kansas City, starts at 8:10pm 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.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Jose Quintana	CHA	5	2	4	5	2	BAL	Miguel Gonzalez	19:05
Andrew Heaney*	MIA	7	7	6	0	7	PHI	David Buchanan	19:05
David Phelps	NYA	2	3	4	7	4	TOR	Mark Buehrle	19:07
Scott Kazmir	OAK	6	7	5	2	5	NYN	Bartolo Colon	19:10
Jeff Locke	PIT	10	5	7	5	6	TB	Chris Archer	19:10
Homer Bailey	CIN	8	3	7	5	8	CHN	Jake Arrieta	20:05
Drew Smyly	DET	5	5	4	3	2	TEX	Colby Lewis	20:05
Aaron Harang	ATL	4	7	4	6	1	HOU	Scott Feldman	20:10
Clayton Kershaw	LAN	10	5	6	5	2	KC	Danny Duffy	20:10
Jo. Zimmermann	WAS	9	7	6	7	3	MIL	Yovani Gallardo	20:10
Shelby Miller	STL	3	3	4	10	2	COL	Jorge de la Rosa	20:40
Justin Masterson	CLE	5	6	6	6	7	AZ	Wade Miley	21:40
Kyle Gibson	MIN	4	4	4	5	4	LAA	C.J. Wilson	22:05
Jake Peavy	BOS	2	2	3	5	3	SEA	Erasmo Ramirez	22:10
Jesse Hahn*	SD	8	4	6	7	5	SF	Tim Hudson	22:15

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