NERD Game Scores: Largely Concerning the American West

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
Seattle at Los Angeles AL | 21:05 ET
Felix Hernandez (144.1 IP, 63 xFIP-, 5.2 WAR) faces Garrett Richards (123.1 IP, 83 xFIP-, 3.2 WAR). After years of exhibiting very excellent armspeed and reasonable control in the minor and then major leagues, the latter has produced a laudable season to date, recording strikeout and walk and ground-ball rates all on the ideal side of average. Richards’ Angels and the opposing Seattlers both currently possess better than 15% odds of qualifying for the divisional series.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Seattle Radio.

Two Brief Notes
A Brief Observation on Clayton Kershaw’s Talent
Seattle right-hander Felix Hernandez, starting tonight for Seattle, has recorded the highest WAR figure (5.2) among all major-league pitchers. One notes, however, that the standard WAR pitching leaderboard omits Clayton Kershaw, himself currently in the midst of a potentially historic season. This is because Kershaw, with 96.1 innings, isn’t qualified for the official MLB leaderboards. Remove the innings threshold, however, and one finds that the Dodgers left-hander is actually tied for third by WAR among all pitchers, with Yu Darvish and Phil Hughes.

Regarding Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Texas at Toronto, starts at 1:07pm 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
Alfredo Simon	CIN	5	3	6	3	9	NYA	Brandon McCarthy	13:05
Colby Lewis	TEX	3	4	6	6	9	TOR	Marcus Stroman	13:07
Corey Kluber	CLE	9	7	7	4	6	DET	Drew Verhagen*	13:08
Zach McAllister	CLE	5	7	6	4	8	DET	Max Scherzer	19:08
Zack Greinke	LAN	8	5	6	3	6	STL	Joe Kelly*	16:05
Brett Anderson	COL	2	9	4	5	5	PIT	Charlie Morton	19:05
Matt Garza	MIL	4	5	5	8	5	WAS	Tanner Roark	19:05
Dallas Keuchel	HOU	8	8	6	2	4	CHA	Hector Noesi	19:10
Danny Duffy	KC	4	5	6	2	9	BOS	Rubby de la Rosa	19:10
Cole Hamels	PHI	6	2	5	7	3	ATL	Aaron Harang	19:10
Tim Hudson	SF	5	6	6	7	7	MIA	Hend’son Alvarez	19:10
David Price	TB	9	7	8	4	9	MIN	Phil Hughes	19:10
Travis Wood	CHN	1	5	5	5	8	AZ	Wade Miley	20:10
Dillon Gee	NYN	3	2	5	4	8	SD	Tyson Ross	20:40
Wei-Yin Chen	BAL	5	6	6	7	7	OAK	Jason Hammel	21:05
Felix Hernandez	SEA	10	5	9	6	9	LAA	Garrett Richards	21:05

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