One Night Only: Break Out the Weekend

This edition of One Night Only features hella special effects.

You’re welcome in advance, is what I mean by that.

Friday, July 23 | Cincinnati at Houston | 8:05pm ET
Starting Pitchers
The Pantone 185s: Travis Wood (NERD: 7)
26.2 IP, 7.76 K/9, 3.04 BB/9, .161 BABIP, 34.3% GB, 6.5% HR/FB, 4.21 xFIP

Space Team: Bud Norris (9)
68.0 IP, 9.66 K/9, 4.37 BB/9, .377 BABIP, 41.3% GB, 9.7% HR/FB, 4.00 xFIP

Why Travis Wood Is Worth Your Time
• In only the third start of his career — July 10th at Philadelphia — he flirted with perfection. (Maybe he flirted with some other things, too. All we know about is the perfection.)
• He followed that performance up with another fine start, home versus Colorado on July 18th: 6.0 IP, 26 TBF, 6 K, 4 BB, 7 GB on 15 BIP (46.7%). Not dominant, but certainly good.
• He’s just a tiny little super guy. (By which I mean to say, he’s only 23 years old.)

Why Bud Norris Is Worth Your Time
• His xFIP (4.00) is far below his ERA (6.09). In other words: Regression in the hizouse, players!
• Per StatCorner’s nerd scouting system, Norris’s slider rates above average in swing-and-misses (70 on the 20-80 scale), zone percentage (60), and ground balls (75). Also, he throws it 35% of the time. So watch it now, ‘fore his arm falls off.
• Those are two pretty good reasons, actually.

A Startling Discovery
The Reds are only 1.5 games out of first.

That Same Startling Discovery Written in Comic Sans
The Reds are only 1.5 games out of first.

Batter Bullets
• Michael Bourn (10) and Drew Stubbs (9) both did quite well via Baserunning NERD. Bourn attempts a stolen base a full quarter of the time he’s on first or second without a runner ahead of him. He takes the extra base on a hit two-thirds of the time (where league average is around 40%).
• One word: Joey Votto. Boom, stats: .305/.413/.574, .424 wOBA, 163 wRC+, 4.1 WAR.

If I Had My Druthers
• Travis Wood would once again flirt with perfection.
• This time, Perfection would be like, “You wanna come up to my place for a cup of coffee?”
• Travis Wood would be like, “Awww yeah. Cup of coffee.”