One Night Only: Game Previews for September 23rd
The Pixies’ 1987 ode to the Allen Craig/Matt Holliday situation.
Chicago NL (4) at St. Louis (3) | 20:15 ET
Obligatory Playoff-Race Note
The Cardinals of St. Louis are currently 2.0 games behind the Braves of Atlanta with six games remaining, giving them (i.e. the Cards) about a 24% chance of making the playoffs, per Cool Standings.
Something You May Know
Something you may know is that, with Matt Holliday (hand) currently out, that Allen Craig has been playing regularly in his (i.e. Holliday’s) absence.
Something You May Not Know
Craig, who’s hitting .312/.359/.529 (.347 BABIP), 150 wRC+ in 207 plate apperances this season, actually has a better rest-of-season ZiPS projection than Holliday.
Something You May Not Know, Part II
Here are those lines, specifically.
Craig: .286/.333/.571 (.300 BABIP), .387 wOBA
Holliday: .300/.364/.500 (.333 BABIP), .376 wOBA
One Caveat Regarding Those Projections
One caveat (of the probably many extant caveats) regarding those projections is that Craig has been protected from righties a little bit. Only two-thirds of the pitchers he’s faced are righties; for an everyday player, that figure would probably be above 80%.
MLB.TV Audio Feed: Cubs Television.
Two Other Games
Toronto (6) at Tampa Bay (7) | 19:10 ET
This game would feature two of the game’s most excellent young players in Desmond Jennings and Brett Lawrie — had the latter not selfishly broken his middle finger, that is.
MLB.TV Audio Feed: Blue Jays Radio.
Atlanta (5) at Washington (5) | 19:05 ET
Stephen Strasburg is probably not the precise pitcher whom the Atlanta Braves (up by two games in the NL Wild Card) would care to face.
MLB.TV Audio Feed: Nationals Television.
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 5.8.
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 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tim Hudson | ATL | 6 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 10 | WAS | Strasburg* | 19:05 |
| Alfredo Simon | BAL | 5 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 5 | DET | Rick Porcello | 19:05 |
| Jon Lester | BOS | 6 | 9 | 6 | 10 | 3 | NYA | Freddy Garcia | 19:05 |
| Edinson Volquez | CIN | 7 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | PIT | Jeff Locke* | 19:05 |
| Carl Pavano | MIN | 4 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 7 | CLE | Justin Masterson | 19:05 |
| Cole Hamels | PHI | 9 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 9 | NYN | R.A. Dickey | 19:10 |
| Brandon Morrow | TOR | 10 | 6 | 10 | 7 | 9 | TB | David Price | 19:10 |
| Drew Pomeranz* | COL | 8 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 6 | HOU | Brett Myers | 20:05 |
| Anthony Vasquez | SEA | 3 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 6 | TEX | Matt Harrison | 20:05 |
| Chris Volstad | FL | 7 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 9 | MIL | Yovani Gallardo | 20:10 |
| Bruce Chen | KC | 2 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 7 | CHA | Zach Stewart | 20:10 |
| Ryan Dempster | CHN | 7 | 4 | 10 | 3 | 8 | STL | Chris Carpenter | 20:15 |
| Matt Cain | SF | 6 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 2 | AZ | Joe Saunders | 21:40 |
| Ted Lilly | LAN | 5 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 2 | SD | Wade LeBlanc | 22:05 |
| Gio Gonzalez | OAK | 6 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | LAA | Jered Weaver | 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.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
*** SPOILER ALERT ***
Clicking through to Strasburg’s player page I note that ZiPS informs us that his line tonight will be 3.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 4 K, 1 BB (!). But why is he pulled after 3 innings? Be concerned, Nats fans.
Meanwhile Hudson goes 6.0 IP with 3ER, 4K, 2BB and gives up 6 hits including a homer.
In a surprising turn of events, Livan Hernandez, whom the Nationals have slyly announced would be shut down, will pitch exactly eight more innings this season.
And, what’s this?, Manny Ramirez will make nine plate appearances over the next week. Hundred-game suspension, shmundred-shmame smuspension.
(This is a fun game.)
Charlie Blackmon apparently makes a triumphant return to the diamond for 14 PAs!
Buster Posey also apparently says, “What Injury?” on his way to hitting a home run and posting a respectable slash after missing most of the entire season.