One Night Only: Game Previews, July 5th-7th

You’re gonna have a TV Party tonight.

This edition of One Night Only contains:

1. Expanded previews for seven or eleven games or something.

2. Pitcher and Team NERD scores for every one of this mid-week’s games.

3. An accidental half-essay on watching taped games.

Note: the Team NERD scores used in this edition of One Night Only are the playoff-adjusted variety introduced in this week’s Leaderboards of Pleasure.

Tuesday, July 5th
A Cavalcade of Excellent Games
Today features a strangely high number of excellent games. Where the average NERD Game Scores for Wednesday average out to 4.8 and the ones for Thursday average out to 5.2 — i.e. both roughly near the perpetual average of 5.0 — tonight’s games come to 6.1. For the aesthetically oriented baseballing fan, the ideal plan would be to — instead of watching a game or two today and then another one or two tomorrow — just to watch two tonight and then, tomorrow, utilize some kind of MLB.TV situation to watch two other games from tonight.

On the Problems with That Plan
Have you ever watched a game already knowing the result? I don’t know what percentage exactly, but I’d guess that the majority of readers — if they have done that — have found the experience less than satisfying. Obviously, certain moments are re-watchable — my guess is that most Red Sox fans could watch Games Four through Seven of the 2004 ALCS in toto on an annual basis — but one of the great appeals of sport is that no one knows the ending. Because the action is improvised and because the denoument is hidden from us, we’re drawn in.

Having been, at one point in my life, a rather devoted fan of European football (Droit Au But, anyone?) — where one must frequently watch games on tape delay — I found myself performing all manner of living-room gymnastics to avoid seeing scores of games I’d planned on watching. (In fact, at one point, ESPN was involved in the curious practice of publishing scores on their crawler for games they were broadcasting later on.) In those times, however, where I accidentally did see a score for a game I’d been planning to watch, the magic of that game would dissipate almost entirely.

On the Solution to That Problem
I think maybe there isn’t one.

Today’s Top Games
These are they:

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP	Home		Time
CC Sabathia	NYA	8	6	8	10	7	CLE	Carlos Carrasco	19:05
Edinson Volquez	CIN	7	9	8	6	9	STL	Jaime Garcia	19:09
Felipe Paulino	KC	9	10	8	3	8	CHA	Jake Peavy	20:10
Justin Verlander	DET	10	4	8	6	7	LAA	Dan Haren	22:05

Wednesday, July 6th
Arizona (10) at Milwaukee (10) | 14:10 ET
• Both the Brewers and Diamondbacks benefit from the playoff-race bonus pretty considerably.
• Per Cool Standings, Milwaukee has a 28.7% chance of making the postseason; Arizona, 37.3%.
• And Josh Collmenter is pitching — which, NERD doesn’t really know about Josh Collmenter.

Thursday, July 7th
Colorado (8) at Atlanta (5) | 13:05 ET
• Per MLB.com, guts and nerves of steel are Tim Hudson’s hallmarks.
• Also per MLB.com, Tim Hudson fell down while throwing a pitch in his last start (below).
• Note: we should all handle our most embarrassing moments as adeptly as Hudson did this one.

Cincinnati (9) at Milwaukee (10) | 20:10 ET
• Before 2011, Homer Bailey (8) had issued 4.1 BB/9 over 304.0 career innings.
• Through seven starts this season, Bailey has a 1.7 BB/9 in 42.0 IP.
• The plate discipline stats don’t reveal much — except for a higher swinging-strike rate (9.5%, relative to 8.1% for his career).

Also Playing
These games are very likely playing at some kind of sporty channel near you.

Tuesday:

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP	Home		Time
Ramon Ortiz	CHN	5	0	4	4	5	WAS	Ross Detwiler	19:05
Wandy Rodriguez	HOU	5	6	5	5	5	PIT	Jeff Karstens	19:05
CC Sabathia	NYA	8	6	8	10	7	CLE	Carlos Carrasco	19:05
Edinson Volquez	CIN	7	9	8	6	9	STL	Jaime Garcia	19:09
Jhoulys Chacin	COL	7	8	7	5	6	ATL	Derek Lowe	19:10
Cole Hamels	PHI	10	1	6	1	6	FL	Chris Volstad	19:10
Brett Cecil	TOR	4	8	6	6	6	BOS	Jon Lester	19:10
Undecided	BAL	5	2	5	10	4	TEX	Matt Harrison	20:05
Zach Duke	AZ	6	10	6	10	3	MIL	Randy Wolf	20:10
Felipe Paulino	KC	9	10	8	3	8	CHA	Jake Peavy	20:10
James Shields	TB	9	6	7	0	7	MIN	Scott Baker	20:10
Justin Verlander	DET	10	4	8	6	7	LAA	Dan Haren	22:05
Felix Hernandez	SEA	9	3	6	1	5	OAK	Trevor Cahill	22:05
Mike Pelfrey	NYN	3	5	4	1	5	LAN	Ted Lilly	22:10
Tim Stauffer	SD	7	4	6	3	6	SF	Matt Cain	22:15

Wednesday:

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP	Home		Time
Wade Davis	TB	0	6	3	0	5	MIN	Francisco Liriano	13:10
Jo. Collmenter	AZ	5	10	7	10	7	MIL	Yovani Gallardo	14:10
Bruce Chen	KC	3	10	6	3	9	CHA	Edwin Jackson	14:10
Brad Penny	DET	1	4	2	6	2	LAA	Tyler Chatwood	15:35
Jason Vargas	SEA	4	3	2	1	0	OAK	Guillermo Moscoso	15:35
Randy Wells	CHN	4	0	4	4	4	WAS	Tom Gorzelanny	19:05
Bud Norris	HOU	8	6	6	5	4	PIT	Charlie Morton	19:05
Phil Hughes	NYA	5	6	6	10	6	CLE	Justin Masterson	19:05
Aaron Cook	COL	1	8	4	5	6	ATL	Jair Jurrjens	19:10
Kyle Kendrick	PHI	2	1	4	1	9	FL	Anibal Sanchez	19:10
Ricky Romero	TOR	6	8	6	6	6	BOS	Tim Wakefield	19:10
Jeremy Guthrie	BAL	4	2	6	10	7	TEX	Alexi Ogando	20:05
Bronson Arroyo	CIN	5	9	5	6	4	STL	Jake Westbrook	20:15
Jonathon Niese	NYN	7	5	6	1	6	LAN	Hiroki Kuroda	22:10
Dustin Moseley	SD	2	4	5	3	10	SF	Mad. Bumgarner	22:15

Thursday:

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP	Home		Time
Juan Nicasio	COL	8	8	7	5	6	ATL	Tim Hudson	13:05
Matt Garza	CHN	10	0	5	4	3	WAS	Livan Hernandez	19:05
Jeff Niemann	TB	4	6	6	6	7	NYA	Bartolo Colon	19:05
Carlos Villanueva	TOR	3	8	6	10	6	CLE	Fausto Carmona	19:05
Jake Arrieta	BAL	4	2	4	6	5	BOS	Andrew Miller	19:10
J.A. Happ	HOU	2	6	4	1	5	FL	Undecided	19:10
Rich Harden	OAK	5	1	6	10	7	TEX	Derek Holland	20:05
Homer Bailey	CIN	8	9	8	10	7	MIL	Chris Narveson	20:10
Max Scherzer	DET	7	4	7	10	6	KC	Danny Duffy	20:10
Carl Pavano	MIN	4	0	3	3	4	CHA	Philip Humber	20:10
Joe Saunders	AZ	2	10	4	6	3	STL	Kyle McClellan	20:15
Doug Fister	SEA	5	3	5	6	6	LAA	Jered Weaver	22:05
Dillon Gee	NYN	4	5	6	1	10	LAN	Clayton Kershaw	22:10
Cory Luebke	SD	5	4	3	3	0	SF	Barry Zito	22:15

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 Team NERD, click here.
To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD of 5 (or 10 for debuts)
Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire.