One Night Only: Game Previews, Weekend of July 23rd

The author’s heart, under the influence of Felipe Paulino’s player page.

This edition of One Night Only contains:

1. Expanded previews for five weekend games: San Diego at Philadelphia on Friday, St. Louis at Pittsburgh and Chicago AL at Cleveland on Saturday, and Tampa Bay at Kansas City and Atlanta at Cincinnati on Sunday.

2. Our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for every one of this weekend’s games.

3. Feelings and/or emotions.

Friday, July 21st
San Diego (3) at Philadelphia (2) | 19:05 ET
You’ll already know Cole Hamels from his role as One of the Two Best National League Lefties. Perhaps you’re less aware, though, of what Cory Luebke — stellar for much of the year out of the bullpen — has done since joining the rotation. Allow Carson Cistulli to be your eyes and ears and, uh, guy who looks up numbers on the internet: 4GS, 24.0 IP, 26 K, 4 BB, 2 HR. That’s about a 2.50 FIP… Tonight marks giant person Kyle Blanks’s return to the major leagues after rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, although signs point to him not starting Friday.

Saturday, July 22nd
St. Louis (7) at Pittsburgh (7) | 19:05 ET
Pittsburgh will not be behind St. Louis in the standings when play begins today.

Chicago Americans (4) at Cleveland (9) | 19:05 ET
The Indians recalled top prospect, second baseman Jason Kipnis before play on Friday. Prospect maven Marc Hulet ranked Kipnis as the third-overall prospect in the Cleveland system before the start of the season. As a 24-year-old at Triple-A Columbus, Kipnis slashed .281/.363/.485 (.320 BABIP) in 393 plate appearances. As I write these words, he’s slated to start on Friday, which means Saturday’s a real possibility, too.

Sunday, July 23rd
Tampa Bay (5) at Kansas City (6) | 14:10 ET
Felipe Paulino (55.0 IP, 8.67 K/9, 2.13 BB/9, 48.7% GB, 78 xFIP-) continues to set the author’s heart aflutter… Also setting the author’s heart aflutter is the Royals lineup (or, their Friday lineup, anyway), were Jeff Francouer to be removed:

1. Alex Gordon (L) LF
2. Melky Cabrera (S) CF
3. Billy Butler (R) DH
4. Eric Hosmer (L) 1B
5. Jeff Francoeur (R) RF
6. Mike Moustakas (L) 3B
7. Matt Treanor (R) C
8. Chris Getz (L) 2B
9. Alcides Escobar (R) SS

Atlanta (5) at Cincinnati (7) | 20:05 ET
Some cursory research reveals something I’m embarrassed not to have known — namely, that Dontrelle Willis was never really that good. In only one of his seasons with Florida did he post an xFIP- (that is, xFIP relative to league average, where lower is better) below 90. That was in 2005, when he threw 236.1 innings and was worth 6.2 WAR. This isn’t to discredit the fact that was obviously a pleasure to watch, but rather merely to note that the author was surprised to find these things out… Brandon Beachy (72.0 IP, 10.13 K/9, 2.50 BB/9, 29.2% GB, 87 xFIP-) pitches for Atlanta and is a joy to watch, but less so with Cincinnati’s poor camera angle.

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
Bud Norris	HOU	8	4	5	1	3	CHN	Carlos Zambrano	14:20
Ervin Santana	LAA	6	8	5	3	3	BAL	Alfredo Simon*	19:05
Gavin Floyd	CHA	5	4	6	9	7	CLE	Carlos Carrasco	19:05
Trevor Cahill	OAK	5	1	3	5	0	NYA	Phil Hughes	19:05
Cory Luebke	SD	10	3	8	2	9	PHI	Cole Hamels	19:05
Chris Carpenter	STL	7	7	6	7	3	PIT	Paul Maholm	19:05
Jair Jurrjens	ATL	5	5	5	7	5	CIN	Bronson Arroyo	19:10
Mike Pelfrey	NYN	3	5	5	3	7	FL	Chris Volstad	19:10
Felix Hernandez	SEA	9	2	6	5	4	BOS	John Lackey	19:10
Jo-Jo Reyes	TOR	3	6	4	8	4	TEX	Colby Lewis	20:05
Max Scherzer	DET	7	6	5	0	4	MIN	Brian Duensing	20:10
Wade Davis	TB	0	5	3	6	4	KC	Luke Hochevar	20:10
Aaron Cook	COL	2	5	6	10	8	AZ	Daniel Hudson	21:40
John Lannan	WAS	4	4	5	2	6	LAN	Hiroki Kuroda	22:10
Shaun Marcum	MIL	6	9	7	5	7	SF	Matt Cain	22:15

Saturday:

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP	Home		Time
Wandy Rodriguez	HOU	5	4	4	1	4	CHN	Randy Wells	13:05
Rich Harden*	OAK	7	1	5	5	3	NYA	A.J. Burnett	13:05
Derek Lowe	ATL	5	5	6	7	6	CIN	Homer Bailey	16:10
Brad Penny	DET	2	6	4	0	7	MIN	Scott Baker	16:10
Mat Latos	SD	7	3	4	2	2	PHI	Kyle Kendrick	16:10
Joel Pineiro	LAA	3	8	4	3	5	BAL	Brad Bergesen	19:05
Edwin Jackson	CHA	8	4	7	9	5	CLE	David Huff*	19:05
Jaime Garcia	STL	8	7	6	7	3	PIT	Kevin Correia	19:05
Chris Capuano	NYN	6	5	5	3	5	FL	Clay Hensley*	19:10
Blake Beavan	SEA	3	2	4	5	6	BOS	Josh Beckett	19:10
Jeff Niemann	TB	4	5	4	6	4	KC	Jeff Francis	19:10
Carlos Villanueva	TOR	4	6	5	8	5	TEX	Matt Harrison	20:05
Jason Hammel	COL	2	5	5	10	6	AZ	Josh Collmenter	20:10
Randy Wolf	MIL	3	9	5	5	5	SF	Ryan Vogelsong	21:05
Tom Gorzelanny	WAS	4	4	5	2	6	LAN	Ted Lilly	22:10

Sunday:

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP	Home		Time
Philip Humber	CHA	4	4	6	9	7	CLE	Justin Masterson	13:05
Gio Gonzalez	OAK	7	1	6	5	7	NYA	Bartolo Colon	13:05
Dillon Gee	NYN	4	5	6	3	9	FL	Anibal Sanchez	13:10
Tyler Chatwood	LAA	2	8	4	3	4	BAL	Jeremy Guthrie	13:35
Tim Stauffer	SD	6	3	7	2	10	PHI	Roy Halladay	13:35
Michael Pineda	SEA	10	2	7	5	6	BOS	Tim Wakefield	13:35
Kyle Lohse	STL	4	7	5	7	5	PIT	Charlie Morton	13:35
Alex Cobb	TB	4	5	7	6	10	KC	Felipe Paulino	14:10
Jordan Lyles	HOU	7	4	7	1	10	CHN	Matt Garza	14:20
Yovani Gallardo	MIL	7	9	8	5	10	SF	Madison Bumgarner	16:05
Ubaldo Jimenez	COL	7	5	7	10	7	AZ	Undecided	16:10
Rick Porcello	DET	5	6	4	0	4	MIN	Francisco Liriano	16:10
Jason Marquis	WAS	4	4	5	2	6	LAN	Chad Billingsley	16:10
Brandon Beachy	ATL	9	5	8	7	7	CIN	Dontrelle Willis*	20:05
Brett Cecil	TOR	4	6	6	8	7	TEX	Alexi Ogando	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 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.
Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire.