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He said a few hellos as he got settled in to the new, spacious clubhouse before taking the field at 1:35pm. I'm sure he was still a bit tired, but also giddy with excitement, when he was standing in center field, looking around Nationals Park and wondering how this all happened. He didn't have too much time to think about it. The second batter of the game, Alex Cintron, hit a high fly to Bernadina. He camped under it, made the catch and had his first of seven putouts in "The Show".

In the bottom of the first, Bernadina didn't waste any time getting his first Major League hit. He laced Jeremy Guthrie's 0-1 pitch into right field for a single. Three batters later, he would score his first MLB run on Aaron's Boone's groundout.

Bernadina had four more at bats, but he failed to collect a hit, finishing 1-5. He did reach base on a fielder's choice, when his sacrifice bunt forced out pinch-runner Felipe Lopez at second. Bernadina showed off his speed, but the Orioles called for a pitch-out on his stolen base attempt and it worked to perfection, as he was caught stealing.

In the grand scheme of things, I'm sure he would've liked to go 5-5 and been successful on his stolen base attempt, but nothing could take away from what he had already accomplished.

If Sunday was any indication of what his future holds, he's going to have a nice career ahead of him. Let's enjoy the next few days or weeks and watch Bernadina grow before us.

Around the Minors

Triple-A Columbus International League West Division
45-37, 2nd place, 2 games out of first
RHP Collin Balester is going to make his Major League debut for the Nationals on Tuesday. The 3rd ranked prospect in the organization, according to Baseball America, and the Nationals 4th round pick in the 2004 draft, has been outstanding in the last two months. All he's done is win eight of 10 starts and four of five to earn the promotion.

Senior Vice President and General Manager Jim Bowden told Balester that it's more than just having three pitches, but winning that gets you to the Majors.

"Balester has a very high ceiling. It's an opportunity to develop a young pitcher that you don't normally have. The development with the change-up changed our opinion over the last month. He's matured. He's been ranked as one of our top prospects by everybody, but he's never won; and I kept telling him in Spring Training, 'this game is about winning; it's not about stuff; it's about winning baseball games, and if you want to be with us (Nationals), you have to win. I don't want to see .500 down there with great stuff. What does that do for me? I want to see you win baseball games.' He's 9-1 since May 1, what am I supposed to ask him? He's 4-0 this month. He's throwing the change-up, he's won. He's done what we've asked him to do. You deserve to have a shot up here. I'm not going to say how long it's going to be; I'm not going to say it's for the rest of the year, but let's give him a shot. He's got a lot of up-side. We're going to take our lumps with him the first month--we know that going in. We have no high expectations for the first month, but we do have expectations that he'll develop by the end of the year and he'll be a solid pitcher for us going into 2009".

Double-A Harrisburg Senators Eastern League Southern Division
44-36, 3rd place, 4 ½ games out of first
The Senators were swept by Erie in their 3-game weekend series, and they have dropped five of their last 10 to fall 4 ½ out of first.

One player who has been on fire is infielder Seth Bynum. Since being promoted to Harrisburg, Bynum is hitting .322 in 20 games. He was only hitting .266 for Potomac (Single-A).

Senators Manager John Stearns was selected to coach the World Team in the Futures Game at Yankee Stadium, July 13th as part of Major League Baseball's All-Star Weekend. The Harrisburg skipper will coach a World Team which features some of the best prospects in the Minor Leagues. Stearns will coach under World Team manager and two-time All-Star Tino Martinez..

Single-A Potomac Nationals Carolina League Northern Division
7-3, 1st place, 3 games ahead (2nd half)
The P-Nats already won the first-half division title and haven't lost their focus, even though they have dropped two straight. Potomac has one of the hottest hitters in all of Minor League ball. Infielder Leonard Davis is tearing up opposing pitchers. He's batting .447, 5 HR, 14 RBI, 27 Runs in 23 games. Davis has hit safely in 26 of his last 29 games. When you hit like that you get promoted, and that's what happened to Davis. According to the Potomac website, Davis and infielder Bill Rhinehart are headed to Double-A Harrisburg, and I'd say both Davis and Rhinehart are deserving of the promotion.

Single-A Hagerstown Suns South Atlantic League Northern Division
8-3, 1st place, 1 game ahead (2nd Half)
The Suns finished the first-half in 5th place, but seemed to have turned things around in the second-half. They are on a 3-game winning streak and are 5-1 on the road. A bench-clearing brawl on Sunday, couldn't keep the Suns from sweeping the Lake County Captains over the weekend.

In addition to the temperature, tempers started to heat up in the top of the sixth inning with the Suns leading 4-2. Suns Boomer Whiting and Dan Lyons were hit by back-to-back fastballs from Captains reliever Josh Judy. Judy was ejected from the game, along with Captains Manager Aaron Holbert after the second plunking. Holbert was automatically ejected due to Judy's actions.

The Captains cut the Suns lead to 4-3 in the bottom of the inning, when Suns pitcher Terrence Engles hit Lake County catcher Michael Valadez in the back. Engles was immediately ejected along with Suns Manager Darnell Coles. Valadez obviously wasn't happy and charged the mound as both benches and bullpens cleared. No one was hurt in the melee and the Suns held on for a 4-3 win.