This might comes as a total shock to many of you, but the lineup was the primary topic in manager Dave Trembley's pre-game media session. No lie. "Let's do what we can to get the offense started and score some runs," he said. "Changing it up is a good idea. Change the routine a little bit." Trembley won't commit to batting Miguel Tejada second, Matt Wieters fourth and Adam Jones fifth for an extended period. He's taking it on a game-by-game basis. In fact, you can expect Craig Tatum...

Matt Wieters is a pretty low key guy with his interviews. No matter how much reporters tried today, he was just not going to make a big deal out of batting cleanup in tonight's batting order. He's batted fourth before in college and the minors, but tonight is in that four spot for the first time ever in the Majors. "It's just a new spot. Go out there and try to get hits and try to put runs up on the board. No change at all, just have to square balls up and find holes tonight. ...

All season long, MASN will bring viewers two can't-miss features on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Every Wednesday, the crew will wire up a Nationals player or coach for Wired Wednesdays. Adam Dunn and Jim Riggleman will make frequent appearances because they also blog here at MASNsports.com. Tonight, catch Adam Dunn on MASN's exclusive Wired Wednesday. Each Thursday, Debbi Taylor, Bob Carpenter and Rob Dibble will take an in depth look at a certain player for Covering the Bases. They'll...

Here's the Orioles lineup: Felix Pie LF Miguel Tejada 3B Nick Markakis RF Matt Wieters C Adam Jones CF Nolan Reimold DH Garrett Atkins 1B Ty Wigginton 2B Cesar Izturis SS Brian Matusz LHP Koji Uehara was scheduled to throw another bullpen session today in Sarasota. He was expected to throw 25 pitches, duplicating Sunday's count. Here's the Rays lineup: Bartlett SS Rodriguez 2B Zobrist RF Longoria 3B Pena 1B Upton CF Aybar DH Navarro C Kapler LF Niemann RHP

The Delmarva Shorebirds have gotten off to a great start under first-year manager Ryan Minor. They are 4-1, in first place, with four wins in a row and putting up some big offensive numbers. Delmarva scored six runs in the 9th Monday to beat Greensboro, 11-6. Tyler Kelly, a 13th-round draft pick last June, has nine RBI the past two games and 10 for the year to lead the South Atlantic League. In his first three games, he went just 2 for 12. In the last two, he is 5 for 11 with a homer and...

The strained abdominal muscle that forced Brian Roberts out of Friday's home opener has improved enough that it's no longer a concern for him. His lower back, however, continues to disrupt the first month of his season and leave a gaping hole atop the order. Roberts received another epidural yesterday to ease the discomfort in his lower back. He's been told to rest before being re-examined by a specialist in three days. "Initially, I came out of the game because of my stomach, but the...

I watched the play over and over. It was a play that won't count in the box score or the stat sheet but one that tells me things will be different this year for the Nationals. Josh Willingham versus Johan Santana with the bases juiced on Sunday in New York. Willingham launches a moon shot to center field that hits above the red line for a home run. During the live action, the umpires did not signal a home run so everyone kept on running. Adam Dunn came down the line with Willy Taveras...

An Orioles fan can hang his or her hat on that right now and almost nothing else. Through seven games, the ERA of the starters is 3.89 with four quality starts. Last April, the O's didn't produce a fourth quality start until game 16. But the solid pitching has been wasted by blown saves, awful hitting and base-running mistakes. The pitchers can only do so much. But moving forward, if they continue to get decent work like this from the starters, the wins should come. At least a few and...

So, Nats Buzz readers, I'm taking an eight week Spanish class on Wednesday nights to brush up on my Spanish speaking, reading and writing skills. I took several courses in high school and college, but I'm very, very rusty. And, as you can imagine, it's incredibly useful to understand Spanish if you love baseball -- as a fan or a writer. Have you ever tried to read a game recap in Spanish? You'll see the same words appearing over and over again. Same thing with the Spanish radio...

Following last night's loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, which might not have actually happened since nobody was there to see it (you know, the ol' tree falling in a forest), manager Dave Trembley suggested that he might shake up the lineup. "Yeah, I probably should do something," Trembley replied when asked if he'd consider it. "You lose your leadoff hitter, that isn't the greatest news in the world when that happens. And then you've probably got eight other guys trying to make up for his...