One Night Only: Game Previews for September 8th
After a battery of tests, FanGraphs has verified that Chris Schwinden is not Miguel Batista.
Featured Game
Atlanta (4) at New York Nationals (4) | 16:10 ET
• Julio Teheran, one of baseball’s top pitching prospects, makes his third start of the season for the Braves.
• You can see Teheran’s numbers at Triple-A Gwinnett to the right of this colon: 144.2 IP, 7.59 K/9, 2.99 BB/9, 0.31 HR/9, 3.06 FIP.
• For the Mets, right-hander Chris Schwinden, 24, makes his major-league debut.
• While not necessarily a top prospect, Schwinden has the distinction of being not Miguel Batista.
• Which must be nice for Mets fans, at least.
MLB.TV Audio Feed: Mets Television.
San Diego (6) at Arizona (8) | 21:40 ET
• Is anyone curious about how Aaron Hill’s performed since joining Arizona?
• If so, here’s that answer in number form: 56 PA, .392/.429/.627, .413 BABIP, 170 RC+.
• Replace the BABIP with Hill’s .284 career mark, and the result is a 110 wRC+
• Which, that’d still be his best performance since 2009 and second-best overall.
• Or, um, his best performance as a baseballer, that is.
MLB.TV Audio Feed: Diamondbacks 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 5.1.
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 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chad Billingsley | LAN | 5 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 5 | WAS | Ross Detwiler | 13:05 |
| Ivan Nova | NYA | 5 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 5 | BAL | Alfredo Simon | 13:05 |
| Julio Teheran* | ATL | 9 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 10 | NYN | Chris Schwinden* | 16:10 |
| Mike Minor | ATL | 9 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | NYN | Dillon Gee | Gm 2 |
| Andrew Miller | BOS | 1 | 10 | 4 | 6 | 6 | TOR | Ricky Romero | 19:07 |
| David Huff | CLE | 2 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 6 | CHA | Gavin Floyd | 20:10 |
| Cole Hamels | PHI | 10 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 5 | MIL | Chris Narveson | 20:10 |
| Cory Luebke | SD | 10 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 7 | AZ | Ian Kennedy | 21:40 |
| Luke Hochevar | KC | 5 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 2 | SEA | Jason Vargas | 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.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
Nats and Dodgers are playing a doubleheader today. Chien-Ming Wang vs. Dana Eveland at 1:05 p.m. EST.