"Ross Detwiler" sounds like the name of some guy you kept hearing about in high school who went to another school and who had a nice car and dated all the girls in your class that you liked. And that's kind of what he was when he last faced the Reds, striking out 7 while allowing just one earned run in six innings. It's easy to forget that in the parade of semi-anonymous pitchers the Nationals have featured in recent years, some of them have pretty good expectations. Detwiler was a #51 prospect pre-2008 and had a great year in the minors in 2010 across 3 levels.
The goal for the Reds at this late date is probably just a winning season. The reach goal is a second-place finish. Both those outcomes may be more important to management than they are to the fans. Personally, I'm going to be more interested in the components of a good finish: some improvement by the rookies, no injuries to the veterans and evidence of at least a half-step forward by players in a similar career arc to Mike Leake.
For those on the Eastern Seaboard preparing for Irene: be safe, don't loot anything and probably don't use this thread as a sole source of Hurricane preparation advice.
Lineups, after the section break:
Phillips 4
Sappelt 7
Votto 3
Bruce 9
Cairo 5
Stubbs 8
Renteria 6
Hanigan 2
Leake 1