Ummm, well....

• Braves 4, Nationals 0

It always does my heart good to see the Virginia Pep Band (banished from UVA football games and forced to wander the Earth like Caine in Kung Fu), but it's sad when they're the highlight of the afternoon. Livan's eight innings of solid pitching were marred by only two mistakes, but those mistakes resulted in 4 Atlanta runs. Meanwhile, none other than Goooz was robbed of a 2-run homer to right by Atlanta super-roookie Jeff Francoeur. (Francoeur's cheering section is composed of people dressed as hotdogs, thus demostrating that if there were any cosmic justice Atlanta, not New Orleans would be the city smited by biblical plagues.)

On the plus side, the announced crowd of 44,000 (distressingly many of whom were Braves fans, but hey, if they want to spend their money on my team) put the Nationals just 80,000 shy of 2.5 million for the season. Tomorrow, in a triumph of hope over experience the Nats send Jason Bergmann to the mound to face John Smoltz. Let us pray.