Brandon Backe has his work cut out for him tonight as he draws the short straw and gets to go up against the reigning Cy Young winner  in Jake Peavy.  Peavy looks like he's on a mission to repeat and sports a sick 1.20 ERA over 4 games and 30 innings.  Peavy's only no decision was arguably his best performance in which he went 8 full innings, struck out 11 and didn't give up a run.   Unfortunately for him, that game went 22 innings and the Padres ended up losing 2-1. 

Backe on the other hand was shelled in his last outing, going only 3 innings and giving up 5 earned runs.  Hopefully Backe can be a competent pitcher tonight and the Astros offense that scored 10 runs last night against these same Padres(albeit, not against Peavy) will return and give him some breathing room.  Any runs against Peavy will fill like a victory in itself.