NERD Game Scores for Wednesday, August 26, 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
Houston at New York AL | 13:05 ET
McHugh (159.0 IP, 100 xFIP-) vs. Pineda (118.0 IP, 71 xFIP-)
On the edition of FanGraphs Audio released this actual morning, the author mentioned that a friend of his — the sort of friend, specifically, who’s had two children over the last four years and whose relationship with the Pastime has suffered duly — would be attending today’s Astros-Yankees game. What follows is a brief collection of statements designed to provide context for a spectator of that same contest who also has no idea what’s going on.

• Both the Astros and Yankees currently possess better than a 50% chance of reaching the divisional series.
• New York’s success has been facilitated in no small part by the unexpectedly robust contributions of Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira.
• Houston’s success, meanwhile, has been facilitated largely by players who are 25 and under.
• Yes, seriously, the Astros.
• By multiple standards, Houston and New York both possess among the top bullpens in the league, if that’s interesting at all.
• Probably avoid staring directly into Carlos Correa’s extraordinary talent.
• You might never return.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Houston Television.

Another Brief Note
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features San Diego at Washington, starts at 19:05 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
Collin McHugh	HOU	5	7	8	9	10	NYA	Michael Pineda	13:05
Chris Bassitt	OAK	6	3	5	3	8	SEA	Felix Hernandez	15:40
Bartolo Colon	NYN	5	5	4	2	7	PHI	Jerad Eickhoff*	19:05
Tyson Ross	SD	8	3	5	5	6	WAS	Gio Gonzalez	19:05
H. Santiago	LAA	3	6	4	3	4	DET	Justin Verlander	19:08
Yohan Flande	COL	5	3	4	2	7	ATL	Shelby Miller	19:10
Brett Anderson	LAN	6	9	5	3	0	CIN	David Holmberg	19:10
Jimmy Nelson	MIL	6	3	4	4	5	CLE	Cody Anderson	19:10
Tyler Duffey	MIN	8	5	6	4	10	TB	Chris Archer	19:10
Jeff Locke	PIT	5	9	6	4	6	MIA	Chris Narveson*	19:10
David Price	TOR	7	8	7	7	4	TEX	Colby Lewis	20:05
Wei-Yin Chen	BAL	5	4	4	3	7	KC	Johnny Cueto	20:10
Rick Porcello	BOS	5	3	5	3	10	CHA	Chris Sale	20:10
John Lackey	STL	5	5	6	5	9	AZ	Patrick Corbin	21:40
Kyle Hendricks	CHN	8	10	7	8	2	SF	Jake Peavy	22:15

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