One Night Only: Previews for Weekend of July 1st

Actual Rich Harden tattoo.

This edition of One Night Only contains:

1. Expanded previews for six of the weekend’s bumpinest games.

2. Pitcher and Team NERD scores for every one of this weekend’s games.

3. The superlative adjective bumpinest, apparently.

Friday, July 1st
Kansas City (10) at Colorado (9) | 20:10 ET
• Instead of demoting Danny Duffy (4) after reinstating Kyle Davies from the DL, the team has elected to keep six starters.
• Regarding the move, Royals manager Ned Yost said, “The six-man rotation is this year’s black.”*
• Added Yost: “Not in a racist way.”**

*May not be a real quote.
**May also not be real.

Arizona (10) at Oakland (1) | 22:05 ET
• Rich Harden, a famous pitcher when you and your sister were just children, makes his season debut tonight.
• Here’s what Harden’s done this year (in two Triple-A starts): 7.2 IP, 12 K, 3 BB, 1 HR.
• Here’s what Harden’s done the past couple years (at home and elsewhere): probably brood.

Saturday, July 2nd
Philadelphia (2) at Toronto (9) | 13:07 ET
• Roy Halladay (10) is making his first start against his former team since being traded this past offseason*.
• Those aren’t tears in the eyes of every Blue Jay fan, though.
• They were all just chopping onions, is what happened.

*As commenter dougiejays notes below, basically this entire sentence is factually inaccurate.

Cleveland (9) at Cincinnati (7) | 16:10 ET
• The Indians are just 0.5 games out still.
• And also they have (prospect!) Lonnie Chisenhall and (the less prospecty, but still young!) Cord Phelps taking regulars ABs now.
• GuessWhatChisenButt.

Sunday, July 3rd
Baltimore (4) at Atlanta (10) | 13:35 ET
• Brandon Beachy (10) is really one of the best things there is now in the majors.
• For one thing, there’s this: 56.1 IP, 10.54 K/9, 2.40 BB/9, 31.2% GB, 2.89 xFIP, 77 xFIP-.
• Also, he just gets whiffs on his fastball (10.3% vs. league-average 6.0%).
• In particular, he’s great to watch on the Braves center-field camera.
• Although, maybe not with the Braves broadcast team.

Milwaukee (8) at Minnesota (0) | 14:10 ET
• On Thursday, our man Chris Cwik was like, “Zack Greinke (10) is sooooooo good.”
• On Friday, another of our mans, Eric Seidman, was all, “Up top, Cwik.”
• On Saturday — who knows. Che sarà, people. Che effing sarà.

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

Friday:

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP	Home		Time
Kyle Kendrick	PHI	2	2	5	9	7	TOR	Ricky Romero	13:07
Edwin Jackson	CHA	8	1	4	0	3	CHN	Randy Wells	14:20
Charlie Morton	PIT	5	3	4	5	3	WAS	Tom Gorzelanny	19:05
Mad. Bumgarner	SF	10	3	5	3	2	DET	Brad Penny	19:05
Justin Masterson	CLE	6	9	6	7	4	CIN	Bronson Arroyo	19:10
Ivan Nova	NYA	3	8	5	5	7	NYN	Jonathon Niese	19:10
Jake Westbrook	STL	4	4	3	6	0	TB	Wade Davis	19:10
Jeremy Guthrie	BAL	4	4	5	5	5	ATL	Jair Jurrjens	19:35
Tim Wakefield	BOS	6	6	7	6	8	HOU	Bud Norris	20:05
Anibal Sanchez	FL	9	3	7	9	6	TEX	Alexi Ogando	20:05
Danny Duffy	KC	4	10	7	7	9	COL	Juan Nicasio	20:10
Yovani Gallardo	MIL	7	8	5	0	4	MIN	Fran. Liriano	20:10
Josh Collmenter	AZ	5	10	7	1	10	OAK	Rich Harden*	22:05
Hiroki Kuroda	LAN	6	3	4	5	2	LAA	Tyler Chatwood	22:05
Dustin Moseley	SD	2	5	3	3	3	SEA	Jason Vargas	22:10

Saturday:

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP	Home		Time
Roy Halladay	PHI	10	2	7	9	4	TOR	Carlos Villanueva	13:07
James McDonald	PIT	2	3	3	5	3	WAS	John Lannan	15:35
Undecided	PIT	5	3	4	5	3	WAS	Livan Hernandez	2nd
Philip Humber	CHA	4	1	5	0	10	CHN	Matt Garza	16:10
Fausto Carmona	CLE	6	9	7	7	7	CIN	Homer Bailey	16:10
Bartolo Colon	NYA	7	8	6	5	4	NYN	Dillon Gee	16:10
Andrew Miller*	BOS	5	6	5	6	3	HOU	J.A. Happ	19:05
Barry Zito	SF	0	3	3	3	7	DET	Max Scherzer	19:05
Jake Arrieta	BAL	4	4	5	5	6	ATL	Tim Hudson	19:10
Chris Narveson	MIL	7	8	5	0	3	MIN	Carl Pavano	19:10
Kyle McClellan	STL	3	4	4	6	4	TB	Jeff Niemann	19:10
Undecided	FL	5	3	6	9	6	TEX	Derek Holland	20:05
Kyle Davies	KC	2	10	6	7	7	COL	Jhoulys Chacin	20:10
Joe Saunders	AZ	2	10	3	1	1	OAK	Josh Outman	21:05
Clayton Kershaw	LAN	10	3	7	5	6	LAA	Jered Weaver	21:05
Cory Luebke*	SD	5	5	5	3	5	SEA	Doug Fister	22:10

Sunday:

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP	Home		Time
Ry. Vogelsong	SF	6	3	5	3	5	DET	Rick Porcello	13:05
Cliff Lee	PHI	9	2	6	9	3	TOR	Jo-Jo Reyes	13:07
Mitch Talbot	CLE	1	9	5	7	6	CIN	Mike Leake	13:10
Freddy Garcia	NYA	3	8	6	5	8	NYN	R.A. Dickey	13:10
Zach Britton	BAL	5	4	7	5	10	ATL	Brandon Beachy	13:35
Kevin Correia	PIT	3	3	5	5	7	WAS	Jordan Zimmermann	13:35
Kyle Lohse	STL	4	4	4	6	4	TB	Jeremy Hellickson	13:40
Josh Beckett	BOS	5	6	6	6	8	HOU	Jordan Lyles	14:05
Zack Greinke	MIL	10	8	6	0	3	MIN	Nick Blackburn	14:10
Gavin Floyd	CHA	5	1	4	0	5	CHN	Rodrigo Lopez*	14:20
Luke Hochevar	KC	4	10	4	7	2	COL	Jason Hammel	15:10
Ian Kennedy	AZ	7	10	6	1	6	OAK	Gio Gonzalez	16:05
Mat Latos	SD	7	5	6	3	5	SEA	Undecided	16:10
Javier Vazquez	FL	3	3	5	9	5	TEX	C.J. Wilson	20:05
Ch. Billingsley	LAN	6	3	6	5	6	LAA	Ervin Santana	20:05

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 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 from MLB.com.