NERD Game Scores for Tuesday, May 13, 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
Tampa Bay at Seattle | 22:10 ET
David Price (53.2 IP, 71 xFIP-, 0.9 WAR) faces Hisashi Iwakuma (14.2 IP, 69 xFIP-, 0.4 WAR). The former, despite having recorded an average fastball velocity over 1 mph lower than last year’s mark — which itself was 2 mph lower than his career-high 95.5 mph fastball average in 2012 — the former, despite all that, has pitched brilliantly thus far in 2014. To wit: both Price’s strikeout rate and walk rate are currently better than his previously established career-best marks by those same measures.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Tampa Bay Radio.
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 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drew Smyly | DET | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | BAL | Ubaldo Jimenez | 19:05 |
| Matt Shoemaker* | LAA | 7 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 9 | PHI | Cliff Lee | 19:05 |
| Zack Wheeler | NYN | 8 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | NYA | Vidal Nuno | 19:05 |
| Justin Masterson | CLE | 7 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 7 | TOR | R.A. Dickey | 19:07 |
| Andrew Cashner | SD | 7 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 5 | CIN | Mike Leake | 19:10 |
| Felix Doubront | BOS | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | MIN | Ricky Nolasco | 20:10 |
| Franklin Morales | COL | 3 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 5 | KC | James Shields | 20:10 |
| Gerrit Cole | PIT | 9 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 4 | MIL | Marco Estrada | 20:10 |
| Matt Harrison* | TEX | 3 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 9 | HOU | Dallas Keuchel | 20:10 |
| Jake Arrieta* | CHN | 6 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 6 | STL | A. Wainwright | 20:15 |
| Stephen Strasburg | WAS | 10 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 4 | AZ | Bronson Arroyo | 21:40 |
| Scott Carroll* | CHA | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 6 | OAK | Drew Pomeranz* | 22:05 |
| Jacob Turner* | MIA | 4 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 4 | LAN | Josh Beckett | 22:10 |
| David Price | TB | 9 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 9 | SEA | Hisashi Iwakuma* | 22:10 |
| Mike Minor* | ATL | 6 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 0 | SF | Ryan Vogelsong | 22:15 |
To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
MLB.tv free game is Padres @ Reds at 7:10 ET.