The Nats square off tonight against an opposing starter whose career pattern thus far has been decidedly, well, serpentine:

YR      WHIP    ERA

02      1.19    3.57

03      1.57    5.82

04      1.28    3.59

05      1.41    4.90

Well, at least until this season:

W/L     ERA     IP/H    HR/9IP

4-8     6.85    89/110  1.94

This season, Rodrigo Lopez has straight-up sucked and, along with Bruce Chen, has served to undermine what figured to be a pretty decent starting rotation (Lopez, Chen, Bedard, Benson, Cabrera). Instead, the Browns rank next-to-last in the American League in ERA. Yeesh.

Of course, Hot Rod might yet emerge tonight unscathed; Capital Weather's NatCast figures a 75 percent chance of rain, with some heavy downpours. So we'll see.