One Night Only!

Actually, Loverboy, not everybody’s working for the weekend — or working at all, in fact.

(NERD scores in parentheses.)

San Diego (10) at St. Louis (3) | 8:15pm ET
Starting Pitchers
Padres: Mat Latos (10)
166.2 IP, 9.40 K/9, 2.43 BB/9, .262 BABIP, 44.7% GB, 8.6% HR/FB, 3.28 xFIP, 3.6 WAR

Cardinals: Kyle Lohse (3)
71.0 IP, 5.07 K/9, 3.17 BB/9. .375 BABIP, 42.4% GB, 5.9% HR/FB, 5.07 xFIP, 0.7 WAR

Notes
• I don’t particularly care about Kyle Lohse one way or the other. I’m sure he’s not someone whose starts — all things being equal — whose starts I’d actively seek out. But the way he’s rendered fictionally by Dan Moore of Viva El Birdos actually makes him considerably more interesting in reality. (There must be a cultural critic who’s written on this phenomenon, no? Jean Baudrillard much? Umberto Eco? Someone?)
• Also notable is that tonight’s game represents a battle between two saints: Didacus of Alcalá (ca 1400 – 1463) and Louis IX of France (1214 – 1270). A brief look at their respective Wikipedia pages reveals that Didacus is, conclusively, a way better saint.
• Mat Latos at 3.6 WAR seems low. You can look at the pitching WAR leaders for yourself, but here are some names I wouldn’t have expected, anecdotally, to see ahead of him: Anibal Sanchez (3.9 WAR, 172.0 IP), Jason Hammel (3.9, 165.2), Gavin Floyd (4.3, 187.1). Those guys are good — I’m not debating that. I’m just saying I wouldn’t have expected them to be there. Really, it’s probably almost entirely due to run environment. The run environment is so deflated at San Diego that you have to really bring it in order to scale the WAR charts.

If I Had My Druthers
• Matt Stairs or Chase Headley or someone would experience ecstasy before the cross.

Other Notes
Cleveland (3) at Kansas City (1), 8:10pm ET
• Carlos Carrasco is (a) pitching tonight and (b) doing this through 20.2 IP: 6.10 K/9, 2.61 BB/9, 66.7% GB, 3.67 xFIP.

Detroit (4) at Chicago Americans (5), 8:10pm ET
• This game features Max Scherzer (8) versus Edwin Jackson (8), who either were or weren’t traded for each other this past offseason. In any case, I know for a fact that they’ve both been Diamondbacks recently. And Tigers. And men among men.

Gridiron Football
• I, Carson Cistulli, have also written about two of this weekend’s gridiron match-ups over at Advanced NFL Stats.

Also Playing
These games are very likely playing at some kind of sporty channel near you.

*Note: As reader Dave has pointed out, Roy Oswalt is listed as an Astro still. That could be a mistake, sure. But then again, it could be a sign that HE’S STILL AN ASTRO AT HEART.

But it’s probably just a mistake.

pNERD = Pitcher NERD
tNERD = Team NERD
Game = Time and Average NERD for Game
* = Estimated NERD