NERD Game Scores for Wednesday, September 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
San Francisco at Los Angeles NL | 22:10 ET
Tim Hudson (184.0 IP, 96 xFIP-, 1.7 WAR) faces Clayton Kershaw (190.1 IP, 57 xFIP-, 6.8 WAR). The Dodgers could clinch the NL West with a win tonight against the Giants. One assumes such an event — a clear indicator of success in their respective field — would make the players on that club happy. But how happy? And for how long? In fact, a meta-analysis of the extant literature conducted by California-Riverside’s Sonja Lyubomirsky reveals that, while success in one’s vocation is a source of happiness, it is also just as often a product of happiness. Unfortunate news, that, for the melancholy among us — who, of course, will have regarded their respective failures as inevitable, anyway.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Basically All of Them.

Lone, Brief Note
Regarding Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Arizona at Minnesota, starts at 13:10pm 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. 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
Bud Norris	BAL	5	4	5	4	9	NYA	Shane Greene	13:05
Chris Sale	CHA	10	4	6	6	5	DET	Justin Verlander	13:08
Vidal Nuno	AZ	6	4	5	4	10	MIN	Phil Hughes	13:10
Hector Santiago	LAA	3	4	7	10	8	OAK	Jon Lester	15:35
Dillon Gee	NYN	4	4	5	4	8	WAS	Gio Gonzalez	19:05
Taijuan Walker	SEA	6	4	4	4	5	TOR	Mark Buehrle	19:07
Jason Vargas	KC	5	10	7	4	6	CLE	Trevor Bauer	19:10
Kyle Lohse	MIL	5	4	4	3	4	CIN	Daniel Corcino*	19:10
Kyle Kendrick	PHI	3	4	4	4	6	MIA	Brad Hand	19:10
Jeff Locke	PIT	6	10	7	4	7	ATL	Julio Teheran	19:10
Jake Odorizzi	TB	7	4	4	4	0	BOS	Anthony Ranaudo	19:10
Scott Feldman	HOU	3	4	4	4	4	TEX	Lisalverto Bonilla*	20:05
John Lackey	STL	8	6	6	4	9	CHN	Jake Arrieta	20:05
Yohan Flande	COL	6	4	5	4	6	SD	Joe Wieland*	21:10
Tim Hudson	SF	6	10	7	4	10	LAN	Clayton Kershaw	22:10

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