Today's Game

For those following today's game on computer.

This should be a great pitching matchup between Esteban Loaiza and Jake Peavy. Both have pitched very well this year; Baseball Prospectus ranks Peavy and Loaiza as the 12th and 13th best pitchers in the National League. Peavy's VORP is 33.1, Loaiza's is 30.5. If both pitchers are on their game, this will be a very low scoring affair.

Of course, if the Nationals couldn't score off of Pedro Astacio, it's hard to see them scoring a lot of runs against Peavy. But weirder things have happened (we're not actually aware of anything weirder happening to the Nats this year, but give us a few minutes and we'll probably be able to come up with something), so let's hope the Nats can break out the whuppin' stick today.

The Nats' anemic offense puts a lot of pressure on Loaiza, because he has to realize that the chances of his team winning diminish significantly with each run the Padres score. That's not an enviable position to be in, but it is a means to becoming recognized as a stopper and a front line starter. In other words, Loaiza's reputation could take a big step forward today if he shuts down the Padres and wins the game for the Nationals.