NERD Game Scores: Surprisingly Relevant Sox-Yankees Event
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
New York AL at Boston | 19:10 ET
Pineda (99.2 IP, 67 xFIP-) vs. Buchholz (110.0 IP, 81 xFIP-)
Following a loss to Tampa Bay on June 27, Boston’s probability of qualifying for the divisional series fell to roughly 8% by the methodology used at this site. After winning eight of ten, however, that same club’s odds have ascended to 23% by that same measure. The relative optimism of the latter figure is informed less by the Red Sox’ current record and more by their expected future performance. Consider: despite possessing the fourth-worst winning percentage in the American League, the club presently features the AL’s top projected rest-of-season winning percentage. That reliance on future performance adds considerable urgency to games like this one, against an immediate competitor for a playoff berth.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Boston Radio.
Other Brief Note
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features St. Louis at Pittsburgh, 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 changes here, if you’re the sort of person accustomed to making poor life decisions.
| Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carlos Rodon | CHA | 8 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 7 | CHN | Kyle Hendricks | 16:05 |
| Lance Lynn | STL | 5 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 10 | PIT | Gerrit Cole | 19:05 |
| Gio Gonzalez | WAS | 7 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 5 | BAL | Undecided | 19:05 |
| Chase Anderson | AZ | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 10 | NYN | Noah Syndergaard | 19:10 |
| Mike Leake | CIN | 6 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | MIA | David Phelps | 19:10 |
| Collin McHugh | HOU | 5 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 5 | TB | Erasmo Ramirez | 19:10 |
| Michael Pineda | NYA | 10 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 7 | BOS | Clay Buchholz | 19:10 |
| Kend. Graveman | OAK | 4 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 10 | CLE | Danny Salazar | 19:10 |
| Ian Kennedy | SD | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | TEX | Wandy Rodriguez | 20:05 |
| Shelby Miller | ATL | 7 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 5 | COL | Undecided | 20:10 |
| Justin Verlander | DET | 0 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 8 | MIN | Ervin Santana* | 20:10 |
| Marco Estrada | TOR | 3 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 4 | KC | Danny Duffy | 20:10 |
| Hector Santiago | LAA | 3 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 5 | SEA | Mike Montgomery | 22:10 |
| Jimmy Nelson | MIL | 6 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | LAN | Mike Bolsinger | 22:10 |
| Cole Hamels | PHI | 8 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 9 | SF | Ma’n Bumgarner | 22:15 |
* = Fewer than 10 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
Verlander with the 0 NERD? Oh, how the mighty have fallen!