One Night Only: Game Previews for August 3rd

The Boston offense is indefatigable, whatever that word means.
Featured Game
Cleveland (9) at Boston (7) | 19:10 ET
• So, there are 25 qualified batters currently sporting a 140 wRC+ or better and five of them, turns out, are on the Red Sox.
• To wit: Adrian Gonzalez (166), Dustin Pedroia (151), Jacoby Ellsbury (146), David Ortiz (145), and Kevin Youkilis (143).
• Those also happened to be batters No. 1-5 (although not in that order) in the Red Sox lineup yesterday in the first game of this series — which, that doesn’t seem fair.
• But you know another thing that’s not fair? Life.
• And a third? My grandfather’s skin after standing out in the sun for, like, 30 seconds.*
*Denotes comedy joke.
Watch: NESN.
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 5.2.

| Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brandon Beachy | ATL | 8 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 5 | WAS | Chien-Ming Wang* | 13:05 |
| Edwin Jackson | STL | 8 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 2 | MIL | Randy Wolf | 14:10 |
| Roy Halladay | PHI | 10 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 | COL | Jason Hammel | 15:10 |
| Gio Gonzalez | OAK | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 5 | SEA | Charlie Furbush* | 15:40 |
| Jason Marquis | AZ | 4 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 4 | SF | Ryan Vogelsong | 15:45 |
| Matt Garza | CHN | 10 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 4 | PIT | Charlie Morton | 19:05 |
| Matt Harrison | TEX | 5 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 5 | DET | Doug Fister | 19:05 |
| Carlos Carrasco | CLE | 6 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 7 | BOS | Tim Wakefield | 19:10 |
| Clay Hensley* | FL | 5 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 3 | NYN | Dillon Gee | 19:10 |
| Carlos Villanueva | TOR | 3 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 8 | TB | James Shields | 19:10 |
| Dontrelle Willis | CIN | 5 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 7 | HOU | Jordan Lyles | 20:05 |
| Jeremy Guthrie | BAL | 3 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 4 | KC | Luke Hochevar | 20:10 |
| A.J. Burnett | NYA | 5 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 5 | CHA | Gavin Floyd | 20:10 |
| Ted Lilly | LAN | 6 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | SD | Tim Stauffer | 22:05 |
| Scott Baker | MIN | 7 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 3 | LAA | Joel Pineiro | 22:05 |
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.
GIF courtesy of the defunkt Walkoff Walk.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
evolution PNERD
………………………………………..
WOLF / MIL / 4 @ 3 @ 4 @ 3 @ 2
ca va mal pour l ancien
Amazing graphic. I’d love to play for the Gas House Gorillas.
Marquis v. Vogelsong for 1st place. Yeah, we all saw that coming.
It’s been a while since I have been this intrigued for a Cardinal pitcher’s start … but I really want to see how Jackson is going to pitch in his 2nd cardinal game … well, with a chance to get within 1.5 games of 1st too. Edwin jackson was the pitcher that started the whole “beaning Red Sox” thing last year. Of course, none of the BoSox would charge EJax, so it erupted when Porcello hit Youk. Be interesting to see if the Cards-Brew continue their “pitching inside”. This has all the makings of a situation like CIN-STL in 2010.
Morton-Garza has a decent shot at being a duel … of course I thought Marcum-Garcia might too.
Imagine the umpire calling the Wakefield-Carassco matchup. Talk about having to change your timing/vision.
That graphic reminds me of one of the greatest pieces of satire ever produced….definitely check this out:
http://www.ussmariner.com/2006/03/12/bugs-bunny-greatest-banned-player-ever/
This is my favorite: http://www.onionsportsnetwork.com/articles/turns-out-craig-counsell-was-actually-best-basebal,6581/
I have a feeling that today a lot of runs are going to be scored with these crapy pitchers.
Villanueva vs. Shields for 3rd place in the AL East haha
And a third? My grandfather’s skin after standing out in the sun for, like, 30 seconds.*
Does this mean you’re white? Not your grandfather of course for he is a deep shade of off-white.
I wish you still previewed 3-4 games. 🙁