One Night Only: Game Previews for August 21st
Winston Churchill, were he alive, would be confounded by Luis Valbuena.
Featured Game
Cleveland (6) at Detroit (2) | 13:05 ET
• Rookie Jason Kipnis, in case you hadn’t heard, was placed on the 15-DL on Friday.
• With Orlando Cabrera gone, that leaves 25-year-old semi-enigma Luis Valbuena to pick up the majority of second-base starts.
• Luis Valbuena, Triple-A: 883 PA, .302/.388/.470.
• Luis Valbuena, Major Leagues: 791 PA, .223/.283/.340.
• Semi-enigma!
MLB.TV Audio Feed: Cleveland Radio?
Also Playing
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire. The average NERD Game Score for today is 5.6.
The following Game Scores include the new and improved playoff-odds adjustment, which you can learn about in your brain by clicking here.
| Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ubaldo Jimenez | CLE | 7 | 6 | 10 | 2 | 6 | DET | Rick Porcello | 13:05 |
| Yovani Gallardo | MIL | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 9 | NYN | R.A. Dickey | 13:10 |
| Josh Collmenter | AZ | 5 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 6 | ATL | Tim Hudson | 13:35 |
| Mike Leake | CIN | 7 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | PIT | James McDonald | 13:35 |
| Roy Halladay | PHI | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 0 | WAS | Chien-Ming Wang | 13:35 |
| Michael Pineda | SEA | 10 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 8 | TB | James Shields | 13:40 |
| Dan Runzler* | SF | 7 | 3 | 8 | 3 | 6 | HOU | Henry Sosa* | 14:05 |
| Jon Lester | BOS | 7 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 6 | KC | Danny Duffy | 14:10 |
| Ivan Nova | NYA | 5 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 3 | MIN | Nick Blackburn | 14:10 |
| Derek Holland | TEX | 7 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 6 | CHA | Gavin Floyd | 14:10 |
| Chad Billingsley | LAN | 5 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 5 | COL | Kevin Millwood* | 15:10 |
| Brian Matusz | BAL | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 7 | LAA | Jerome Williams* | 15:35 |
| Anibal Sanchez | FL | 10 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 9 | SD | Cory Luebke | 16:05 |
| Luis Perez* | TOR | 7 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | OAK | Gu. Moscoso | 16:05 |
| Jake Westbrook | STL | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | CHN | Rodrigo Lopez | 20:05 |
NERD represents an attempt to anticipate the watchability of a game for the baseballing enthusiast.
To learn more about Pitcher NERD, click here and scroll down a little.
To learn more about latest Team NERD, click here.
To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
I presume Jason Donald will get more starts than Valbuena at 2nd while Kipnis is on the DL.
Oh, right. Jason Donald. Maybe a better option. Way less enigmatic, though.
3 straights day of a game score of 9 or 10 for the Tigers? All cheating by playing their playoff seeking division rival aside, I like it.
Essentially I am saying that MLB has become aware of your ratings system Carson and is attempting to game it.
I’m sorry, but I think you need the playoff adjustment in Team NERD if the Royals get a 10 and the three teams actually in the AL Central race get 2, 6, and 3. A playoff push beats a poor team full of scrappy youngsters any day.
Maybe for you. I know I’d rather watch the Royals than the Tigers, Indians, or (shudder) ChiSox.
But why?
there already is one. look at team and pitcher scores for the first game. Then look at the overall rating.
Can we get a post on Jose Tabata’s contract extension?
Wang (0) outlasts Halliday (10)
Nats, team NERD (4) with two walkoff wins, in a sold out stadium.
(Well, all the fans are wearing one shade of red or another.)
Zim’s walk off grand slam (who wants to watch that?) puts him on the
All Time list of walk off home run hitters.
C’mon Carson, show DC some love, please …..
This is NERD remember? Standard reasons for a team being compelling need not apply.
Is that why KC rates a “10” ?