John Lannan faced a lot of challenges during his six-start big-league debut last season. His first game came against the Phillies and Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. His third game came against Barry Bonds in San Francisco with Bonds sitting on 755 homers.

But Lannan probably didn't face a lineup like he's seeing today from the Tigers, whose top five include Ivan Rodriguez, Brandon Inge, Carlos Guillen, Magglio Ordonez and Miguel Cabrera. Pudge opened the game by taking him deep to left for a 1-0 lead. Inge then singled, and Cabrera eventually rapped an RBI single to left to make it 2-0. Lannan fell behind each of the first five hitters, not a good sign. But to his credit, he retired seven straight and has now gone through the third without allowing another baserunner.

The Nats, meanwhile, haven't done much with Justin Verlander (then again, who does?). Two-out single by Lastings Milledge in the first. Leadoff single by Wily Mo Pena in the second. Two-out singles by Ronnie Belliard and Milledge again in the third. That's it so far. Through three, it's Tigers 2, Nats 0.

Oh, and watching the game in the stands today with our own Thom Loverro: George "The Animal" Steele. Seriously. The Animal, who has a real name but it eludes me at the moment, is a local resident, and Loverro tracked him down and invited him to come to the game today. Thom took him through the Nats clubhouse before the game and several players (Paul Lo Duca, Johnny Estrada) were in awe. Sorry, George didn't eat any turnbuckles. You can read plenty more about this in tomorrow's paper.