Tonight's Game

Tonight's game.

Tonight's pitching matchup heavily favors the Nationals. Ranked by VORP, Esteban Loaiza is the 23rd best pitcher in the majors this year, and Jon Lieber is the 210th. Lieber can run hot and cold, so let's hope he's cold tonight.

It looks like Frank Robinson's criticism of Cristian Guzman wasn't disqualifying, because Guzman starts tonight at shortstop. Preston Wilson bats 5th and Brian Schneider 6th, so Vinny Castilla, Guzman, and Loaiza make up the lost last third of the lineup. That's an OPS of .695, .497, and .495 in the last three positions. Interesting, isn't it, that the pitcher's OPS is about the same as the OPS of the 8th place hitter, whose OPS is dramatically worse that the OPS of the 7th place hitter, whose OPS is terrible. That's not the lineup of a good hitting team, and it probably means a lot of stalled rallies. That's a real problem because the Nats don't hit a lot of home runs and therefore have to get most of their runs via sustained rallies. Let's hope for a surge in power tonight!