NERD Game Scores: Presenting the Highest-Leverage Baseball

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 Milwaukee | 14:10 ET
Jake Peavy (137.0 IP, 111 xFIP-, 1.0 WAR) faces Wily Peralta (138.0 IP, 99 xFIP-, 0.7 WAR). This is the third game in a series that’s featured the two clubs currently playing the highest-leverage games in the league. San Francisco won last night, although only modestly — because the Dodgers also won — only modestly improved their odds of qualifying for the divisional series from 48.3% to 48.7%. The Milwaukees, meanwhile, despite occupying first place in the NL Central, currently possess a worse chance of reaching the divisional series than either the Cardinals or Pirates per the methodology employed by the present site.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Basically All of Them.

Two Brief Notes
Status Update: Javier Baez
In his second game as a major-leaguer, Cubs prospect Javier Baez played second base and recorded zero of the following in four plate appearances: walks, strikeouts, home runs, and/or hits (box).

Regarding Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Miami at Pittsburgh, starts at 7:05pm 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
Jacob deGrom	NYN	8	2	6	5	10	WAS	J. Zimmermann	12:35
Rick Porcello	DET	6	4	5	5	7	NYA	Shane Greene	13:05
Jake Peavy	SF	3	10	8	9	7	MIL	Wily Peralta	14:10
Kyle Hendricks	CHN	7	4	5	4	4	COL	Yohan Flande	15:10
Collin McHugh	HOU	7	4	3	2	0	PHI	Rob. Hernandez	19:05
Brian Flynn*	MIA	6	4	5	9	2	PIT	Edinson Volquez	19:05
Miguel Gonzalez	BAL	1	7	5	7	3	TOR	J.A. Happ	19:07
T.J. House	CLE	8	5	5	3	7	CIN	Homer Bailey	19:10
Bran. Workman	BOS	2	3	5	8	5	STL	Ad. Wainwright	19:15
Jeremy Guthrie	KC	3	5	4	3	4	AZ	Vidal Nuno	21:40
Hyun-Jin Ryu	LAN	8	4	6	8	4	LAA	C.J. Wilson	22:05
Yohan Pino	MIN	4	3	5	6	7	OAK	Jon Lester	22:05
Scott Carroll	CHA	1	3	4	5	6	SEA	Roenis Elias	22:10

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