One Night Only: Game Previews for July 27th

July 27, 2011

Ralph Waldo Emerson writes in Spiritual Laws that “only in our easy, simple, spontaneous action we [are] strong.”

Please believe that this edition of One Night Only was composed as easily, simply, and spontaneously as possible.

As usual, the reader can find here our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for every one of today’s games.

Featured Game
San Francisco (5) at Philadelphia (3) | 19:05 ET
• Tim Lincecum (8) was scratched from Tuesday’s start with the “flu,” but I think we all know what “flu” means, right?*
• Influenza, is the answer. We just say “flu” because “influenza”‘s a long word.
• Lincecum faces Cole Hamels (10), currently fourth among qualifiers, and third on his own team, by xFIP and SIERA.
• Question: if some combination of Philly starters are the Tenenbaum children, who, do you think, is Eli Cash?
• Maybe Answer: Joe Blanton?

*Note: Matt Cain (7) would pitch tonight if Lincecum’s still sick. Manage your life decisions accordingly.

Also Playing
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games. The average NERD Game Score for today is 5.3.

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Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP	Home		Time
Ervin Santana	LAA	6	8	6	10	5	CLE	David Huff*	12:05
Felix Hernandez	SEA	9	2	4	5	0	NYA	Phil Hughes	13:05
Max Scherzer	DET	6	6	6	6	5	CHA	John Danks	14:10
Javier Vazquez	FL	4	4	4	4	3	WAS	Livan Hernandez	19:05
Tim Lincecum	SF	8	5	8	3	10	PHI	Cole Hamels	19:05
Alfredo Simon*	BAL	5	3	5	6	6	TOR	Ricky Romero	19:07
Bruce Chen	KC	2	6	4	5	4	BOS	John Lackey	19:10
Mike Pelfrey	NYN	2	5	4	8	4	CIN	Bronson Arroyo	19:10
Paul Maholm	PIT	3	7	5	6	5	ATL	Jair Jurrjens	19:10
Brian Duensing	MIN	5	0	4	7	4	TEX	Colby Lewis	20:05
Carlos Zambrano	CHN	3	1	6	9	10	MIL	Zack Greinke	20:10
Bud Norris	HOU	8	4	7	7	8	STL	Chris Carpenter	20:15
Ian Kennedy	AZ	6	9	8	3	10	SD	Cory Luebke	22:05
James Shields	TB	9	4	6	1	5	OAK	Trevor Cahill	22:05
Aaron Cook	COL	2	4	4	3	6	LAN	Hiroki Kuroda	20:10

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.
Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire.

11 Comments

Oldest

Newest Most Voted

David

15 years ago

Can we get some sort of NERD score exemption for Livan Hernandez? The fact that he gets major league hitters out throwing the ball at 50mph is fascinating to watch!

Carson CistulliMember

Reply to David

You can; it’s just, there’s a lot of paperwork involved and it’s super annoying.

Steve Balboni

Reply to Carson Cistulli

Can we call guys like Livan Hernandez, Jim Thome, Julio Franco, etc, “Ulysses” players? You know,

Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

That’s true about “flu”, but what does “flu-like symptoms” mean? Glad you asked, it means too much Crystal (the drink and the stripper) last night and a pounding hangover; “Sorry skip, my easy easy, simple, spontaneous action last night was to make it rain.”

He probably doesn’t have influenza.

There’s no variable in the NERD score for home-team rooting interest? I like watching Lackey get destroyed because it reminds me that the Angels have made a good decision in the past half-decade.

MikeS

So we’ve given up on “Three nights only?” Good, I go into withdrawal without some daily Cistulli. Weekends are hell.

herve houchoua

evolutions PNERD du jour

……………………………….
hausse

CARPENTER / ST L / 7 @ 8
SIMON / BAL / 3 @ 5

baisse

SCHERZER / DET / 7 @ 6
ARROYO / CIN / 5 @ 4
PELFREY / NYM / 3 @ 2

siggian

I may have spotted a hole in the NERD calculations. There should be some sort of bonus for teams recently involved in an important trade. The first game for Colby Rasmus in a Jays uniform should be interesting, although it probably won’t be for tonight.

JoeDE

Would that make Worley the Dudley of the Phillies rotation?

futant462

Carson, do you know what the highest possible NERD Matchup in baseball would be?
I’d have to think it’s something like Daniel Hudson/ARI vs. Zack Greinke/MIL right?