One Night Only: Game Previews for September 16th

You know what just got you know what.

Tampa Bay (7) at Boston (9) | 19:10 ET
Brass Tacks
With Tampa Bay’s 9-2 victory yesternight, the Rays are now only three games behind the Red Sox in the AL Wild Card.

Brass Tacks, Vol II
Per Cool Standings, Boston’s and Tampa Bay’s playoff odds are 88.7% and 8.2%, respectively.

Brass Tacks, Vol III
Per our mortal enemies, Boston and Tampa Bay’s playoff odds are 94.5% and 4.4%, respectively.

A Note on Tonight’s Pitchers
You should consider filing tonight’s pitching matchup under Best Case Scenario, in terms of how it features something like each team’s staff ace in James Shields (226.1 IP, 78 xFIP-) and Josh Beckett (173.2 IP, 89 xFIP-).

A Note on Tonight’s Pitchers, Vol II
That is, unless you include the other pitchers who are something like each team’s staff ace in David Price (210.1 IP, 80 xFIP-) and Jon Lester (176.0, 88 xFIP-).

A Note on a Relevant Internet Meme
If you don’t mind seeing the word sh-t over and over on your computer screen, you might consider bathing your eyes and mind in this particular Google image search.

MLB.TV Audio Feed: Red Sox Television.

Oh Yeah, Also
Los Angeles AL (5) at Baltimore (2) | 19:05 ET
The Angels remain 3.5 games behind Texas and Dan Haren is pitching, but you’ll also have to watch Baltimore.

MLB.TV Audio Feed: Angels 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 5.7.

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
Wandy Rodriguez	HOU	5	4	6	3	10	CHN	Matt Garza	14:20
Dan Haren	LAA	8	5	10	2	6	BAL	Tommy Hunter	19:05
Javier Vazquez	FL	5	8	4	5	4	WAS	John Lannan	19:05
Jaime Garcia	STL	8	3	7	3	6	PHI	Vance Worley	19:05
CC Sabathia	NYA	10	10	6	6	4	TOR	Brett Cecil	19:07
Randy Wolf	MIL	2	8	3	5	3	CIN	Bronson Arroyo	19:10
James Shields	TB	8	7	10	9	7	BOS	Josh Beckett	19:10
Chris Capuano	NYN	7	4	6	5	6	ATL	Derek Lowe	19:35
Philip Humber	CHA	5	2	5	10	7	KC	Felipe Paulino	20:10
Ubaldo Jimenez	CLE	7	4	4	0	4	MIN	Kevin Slowey	20:10
Mad. Bum.	SF	10	3	6	6	4	COL	Alex White	20:10
Wade Miley	AZ	5	9	4	5	4	SD	Tim Stauffer	22:05
Doug Fister	DET	6	2	4	1	5	OAK	Trevor Cahill	22:05
Jeff Locke*	PIT	8	5	6	4	7	LAN	Hiroki Kuroda	22:10
C.J. Wilson	TEX	6	8	5	1	3	SEA	Blake Beavan	22:10

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.