NERD Game Scores for Tuesday, September 1, 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
San Francisco at Los Angeles NL | 18:10 ET
Bumgarner (175.2 IP, 75 xFIP-) vs. Greinke (179.1 IP, 82 xFIP-)
This game — or, at least, the result of this game — doesn’t possess the sort of postseason implications that others of today’s do. The Blue Jays and Yankees, for example, remain separated by only 1.5 games in the AL East. The stakes for them, perpetually, are large — either playing in or bypassing the wild-card game. The Giants, meanwhile, currently feature somewhere in the vicinity of an 8% to 17% chance of reaching the divisional series, depending on the methodology one consults. They’re likely not to reach the postseason, it seems. Nor will a victory tonight — even against the division-leading Dodgers — alter that state of affairs greatly. A victory today would, however, create greater implications for tomorrow’s game. It would, in a sense, cultivate the possibility of something marvelous. This sort of possibility holds considerable appeal — if only because the human mind is poorly constructed to understand its improbability.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Basically All of Them.

Another Brief Note
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Arizona at Colorado, 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	5	4	4	COL	Yohan Flande	15:10
Rubby de la Rosa	AZ	7	5	4	4	0	COL	Kyle Kendrick	20:40
Drew Smyly	TB	8	4	5	4	3	BAL	Chris Tillman	19:05
Cody Anderson	CLE	5	5	6	10	2	TOR	Marco Estrada	19:07
Justin Nicolino	MIA	2	4	3	3	2	ATL	Manny Banuelos	19:10
Michael Pineda	NYA	10	10	7	4	5	BOS	Rick Porcello	19:10
Aaron Harang	PHI	1	3	3	5	4	NYN	Jon Niese	19:10
Ant. DeSclafani	CIN	5	4	4	5	2	CHN	Dan Haren	20:05
Chris Sale	CHA	10	3	5	6	4	MIN	Tyler Duffey	20:10
Justin Verlander	DET	5	4	5	4	7	KC	Johnny Cueto	20:10
Gerrit Cole	PIT	10	6	6	4	5	MIL	Jimmy Nelson	20:10
Roenis Elias	SEA	5	4	5	8	3	HOU	Scott Feldman	20:10
Joe Ross	WAS	10	5	7	6	10	STL	Carlos Martinez	20:15
Matt Shoemaker	LAA	5	5	5	4	5	OAK	Chris Bassitt	22:05
Ma.n Bumgarner	SF	9	5	7^	6	7	LAN	Zack Greinke	22:10
Yovani Gallardo	TEX	2	8	5	4	7	SD	Andrew Cashner	22:10

* = Fewer than 10 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.
^ = Altered to better reflect how actual humans perceive the world.